Thus, while her own film career was hardly scintillating, Rattan Bai was to be known as the matriarch of a large and celebrated film family which includes Shobhna Samarth, Nalini Jaywant, Nutan, Tanuja, Mohnish Behl, Kajol, as also Shomu Mukherjee (husband of Tanuja) and Ajay Devgan (husband of Kajol).
A member of a prominent film industry family, which has been in Bollywood since the 1940s, Shobhna was born as Saroj Shilotri to banker P.S. Shilotri and his wife, Rattan Bai.
The film involvement of the clan began with actress Rattan Bai, mother of actress Shobhna Samarth, and grandmother of actresses Tanuja and Nutan.
A distant relative, Rattan Bai, arranged a marriage for him with her beautiful daughter Shobhna Samarth, an aspiring actress.