Overview
- Soni says union members repeatedly harassed producers for hiring her, fined them, and at times pushed her off sets when she began working in the early 2000s.
- She recounts threatening voicemails to her family warning her hands would be cut off if she continued working, which she says prompted a call to Goregaon police after an incident at Filmistan.
- According to Soni, women were confined to hairdressing roles while men controlled makeup departments, and she was asked to hide in vanity vans to avoid union scrutiny.
- She notes the legal turning point came in 2014 when the Supreme Court ruled the ban on female makeup artists illegal, paving the way for wider access.
- Soni credits support from prominent figures including Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Karan Johar, Farah Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Sameera Reddy and Preity Zinta, citing Farah Khan’s intervention during Om Shanti Om to stop her replacement.