Showing posts with label Ravi Tandon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ravi Tandon. Show all posts
I kept my kids away from the glam world, says Raveena's mother Veena Tandon
8:32 AM
Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; May 9, 2024)
Raveena Tandon says that her philanthropic and animal-lover side is a gift to her from her mother, Veena Tandon, who turns 82 on May 13. In her first-ever interview, the actor’s mum tells us all about her journey, raising her two kids and being married to producer Ravi Tandon.
“When I was young, I was studying most of the time. I went to The Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, and then to SNDT College. I shifted to my sister’s house in my teen years who brought me up, since my mother was no more. So, I also lived in Dehradun (Uttarakhand). But most of the time, I was in Mumbai with my father.”
Veena got married after finishing college, and took up the “toughest job” of being a house manager. She says, “I was very happy being in the background and being a force for my husband. He was busy throughout the day, so I had to take care of both our kids (her elder son, producer Rajeev Tandon, and daughter Raveena) — taking them to school, getting them back, raising them well. My husband used to have two-three shifts in a day. I did the best I could.”
She tells us that she never attended any film party that would happen at their home. “I would always be away, along with our kids. I kept them away from all this,” quips Veena. This comes as a surprise because both her kids became part of showbiz.
Raveena adds, “I wanted to be a pilot or appear for the Indian Police Services. But when people started telling me I should try modelling or acting, it got me thinking. If my dad was my emotion, my mum is my strength. As a kid, I would always tag along with her as she was heavily into social work and collecting funds. When I decided to take in my two young girls (Raveena adopted two little girls – Pooja and Chaya) at 21, my mum took care of them when I was away shooting. I have absorbed the strength from her.”
Veena on how Raveena ended up becoming an actor....
She was not interested in films, but when she got Patthar Ke Phool (1991) with (actor) Salman Khan, her friends said, ‘Arey, Salman ke saath film hai, karo-karo.’
Bollywood actors share instances when they prioritized professional commitments over a personal crisis
8:28 AM
Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; March 27, 2023)
While fame and luxury might seem like the key facets of a celebrity’s life, erratic shoot hours, sleepless nights and prioritizing work over personal life are often part of the fame game, too. Recently, in an interview with author-lyricist Neelesh Misra, politician and former actor Smriti Irani said that back in the day, she had to return to the shoot of producer Ekta Kapoor’s TV show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi a day after suffering a miscarriage. “I returned because I needed money to pay EMIs for my house,” Irani said.
Here, actors tell us about instances when they kept a personal crisis aside to fulfil their work commitments.
Pankaj Tripathi
Sometimes, you can be emotionally in a totally different state and you have to shoot for an opposite emotion. I remember a day when my mother was unwell, but I had to shoot a comedy scene. Darshakon ko isse matlab nahin hai ki aapka emotional state kya tha jab aapne koi scene shoot kiya. Yahin pe actor ka commitment aa jaata hai. Another instance was two weeks ago. I was so sick that I couldn’t speak. But I went for the shoot because I didn’t want the entire unit to suffer.
Shilpa Shetty Kundra
I broke my knee in 2022 on the set of Indian Police Force (her upcoming web project). It was the most debilitating moment of my life. I had committed to a lot of things and everything came to a standstill. But there was one event that I could not back out of as the organizers had arranged everything. I kept my word and reached on a wheelchair, but it was really hard.
Rakul Preet Singh
I was running a 102-degree fever when I shot for the song Vaddi Sharaban (De De Pyaar De; 2019). My mum did cold pattis in-between the shots. Another difficult situation was when I was shooting for a project and I heard that my grandmother passed away. My dad asked me to come immediately, but I finished that day’s shoot, because I couldn’t have left it [midway]. The bright side is, we love our job so we push our physical and emotional boundaries.
Adil Hussain
In 2001, I was shooting for my show Jasoos Vijay near Jaisalmer. My brother called and said that our father had passed away. The next minute, I was told the shot was ready, so I shot for the next two hours. There were 150 people on the set and if I’d left, they’d have been stuck for four days. Another instance was in April last year. I fell flat on my nose on the set of The Storyteller. The director asked me to go to the hospital, but I asked them to cover the cut with VFX and finished work.
Raveena Tandon
The most difficult time was when I lost my father (filmmaker Ravi Tandon) on February 11, 2022. I was shooting for One Friday Night (2022) and since the makers had an urgent shoot to finish, I returned to work on February 13. I was not in the right frame of mind, but sometimes, you should keep yourself aside and think of others.
Sometimes I think nobody likes me, but somewhere in the universe, there’s someone watching over me-Raveena Tandon
8:37 AM
Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; January 28, 2023)
“What? Really? You’re kidding, right?” is actor Raveena Tandon’s reaction, as we are the first to inform her about the Padma Shri. “I feel so honoured and grateful. I want to thank my fans. It’s because of their love that I could sustain in the industry for so many years. I was not expecting this at all. I don’t know how to react,” she exclaims.
A star for three decades, Tandon has always maintained a fine balance between commercial films such as Mohra (1994) and offbeat ones such as Daman (2001) that fetched her a National Film Award, too. The actor, who is in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) when she learns about the honour, says that all she’s ever focused on is her work and never the rewards.
“I have never worked for awards. God has been really kind that my work has been recognized. I am a pretty neutral person, who locks horns with everyone. Sometimes I think nobody likes me, but somewhere in the universe, there’s someone watching over me,” says the 50-year-old.
What makes the honour extra special for the Aranyak actor is that her name was announced as Raveena Ravi Tandon, referring to her late father, filmmaker Ravi Tandon. “It is unbelievable. Every time I went on stage to receive an award in the recent times, I’d look up and say, ‘Thank you, papa’. In February, it’s going to be a year [since his death]. It’s also his birthday the same month. Raveena Ravi Tandon felt really special,” the actor gets emotional.
Tandon has been chosen by the ministry to be a delegate at the prestigious W20, the Women’s Empowerment engagement wing at G20 India’s Presidency. Elated at the two honours, she says, “I am a delegate there because of my social work and the Padma Shri is for my art.”
To avoid schedule delay, Raveena Tandon reports to the shoot of her yet-untitled next
8:21 AM
To avoid schedule delay, Raveena reports to the shoot of her yet-untitled next and Ghudchadhi’s look test two days after director-father’s demise
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; February 16, 2022)
Last Friday, less than a week before his 87th birthday, Raveena Tandon’s father Ravi Tandon passed away. The director was the mind behind several hit films, including Khel Khel Mein (1973), Anhonee (1973), Majboor (1974) and Nazrana (1989). While the makers of her yet-untitled next offered to rework the schedule to accommodate Raveena’s absence for a few days, the conscientious actor reported back to the set a day after her father’s last rites.
A source reveals, “Being the professional she is, Raveena didn’t want her personal tragedy to affect her work commitments, or her producers to suffer because of her unavailability. As a producer’s daughter, she understands the value of time and money. So, two days after the tragedy, the actor was back on the set of the film.”
The actor also reported for the look test of Ghudchadhi, a light-hearted fare that reunites her with Sanjay Dutt and Aruna Irani. The source adds that the cast and crew will soon fly out to Jaipur to commence shooting. Dutt, who is currently in the US, is expected to join them on February 22.
Majboor, Khuddar director and Raveena Tandon's father Ravi Tandon passes away
8:09 AM
Avijit Ghosh (THE TIMES OF INDIA; February 12, 2022)
Ravi Tandon, who directed taut and trendy thrillers such as ‘Majboor’ and ‘Khel Khel Mein’ in the 1970s and delivered the 1980s box-office biggie, Khuddar, passed away at his Mumbai house on Friday. He was 86. He was suffering from lung fibrosis for the past few years and died due to respiratory failure at 3:30am, a family member told PTI.
“You will always walk with me, I will always be you, I’m never letting go. Love you papa,” his actor-daughter Raveena Tandon messaged on a social media platform.
The Agra-born director knew the craft of constructing riveting thrillers within the matrix of popular Hindi cinema without compromising on quality. Both ‘Majboor’ (Amitabh Bachchan-Parveen Babi) and ‘Khel Khel Mein’ (Rishi Kapoor-Neetu Singh) were slick and pacy, a cut above the regular fare. Even the whodunit ‘Anhonee’ (Sanjeev Kumar-Leena Chandavarkar) had a couple of nerve-jangling scenes and a neatly-concealed plotter.
Tandon’s gift for building tension is best exemplified in the ‘Majboor’ climax. For a large part, the scene involves a bleeding, dying man (Pran) aiming his gun at a killer (Satyen Kappu) in a hut. It’s a tribute to Tandon’s skills that the proceedings remain pulse-pounding and the audience edgy all along. The film’s 18-minute finale seems to be gone in 180 seconds.
The film director had a good ear for music too. ‘Khel Khel Mein’s’ cool and bouncy tracks, fashioned by an inform R D Burman, were a rage among the young. ‘Majboor’ had an ensemble of catchy compositions by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. ‘Khuddar’s playful number, ‘Angrezi mein kehte hain’ (singers: Lata-Kishore, lyrics: Majrooh, music: Rajesh Roshan) topped the annual Binaca Geetmala, the popular weekly radio show of Hindi film music chartbusters, in 1982.
Thrillers were Tandon’s forte but he also directed the moderately successful drama about the old and the aging, ‘Zindagi’, which relied largely on the acting skills of Sanjeev Kumar with whom he collaborated regularly. The 70s were the high noon of Tandon’s career. However, in the earlier 80s, along with the watchable winner ‘Khuddar’, he delivered another hit — the trite lost-and-found ‘Waqt ki Deewar’. But these films lacked his signature.
The 1980s saw major changes hit the industry: film piracy and the rise of television being two of them. The resultant shift in content adversely affected many filmmakers. Tandon was no exception. His later films — ‘Rahi Badal Gaye’, ‘Bond 303’, ‘Nazrana’, to name just three — crashed at the cash counters. He also directed his own son, Raj, in the forgotten ‘Ek Main Aur Ek Tu’. Among those who mourned Ravi Tandon’s passing on social media were actors Juhi Chawla and Namrata Shirodkar.
There’s this nepotism debate today, which I think is ridiculous-Raveena Tandon
8:00 AM
Rishabh Suri (HINDUSTAN TIMES; February 26, 2021)
It started with her not wanting to become an actor, but now, she has been in the industry for 30 years. Mention it to Raveena Tandon, and she laughs, “When you say it aloud, it doesn’t feel like that. Every new film or show I do, I’ve butterflies in my stomach.”
Daughter of producer-director Ravi Tandon, she went on to establish herself in a variety of genres. One might think she got everything on a silver platter, but the reality, she says, was far from it.
“I am in this industry by default, I never wanted to be an actress. It wasn’t that my dad influenced someone to take me into films, or pushed me. There’s this nepotism debate today, which I think is ridiculous. Things happened on their own for me. If I didn’t have the face for it, I wouldn’t have been discovered,” says the 46-year-old.
It was actually the makers of Pathhar Ke Phool (1991), who approached her father to let her act. “They said, ‘ghar ki bacchi hai, don’t worry’,” she says.
Three decades later, today, she is set to make her web debut. Ask her what is it about her which helped her survive, and she says, “I managed to do some varied stuff and got accepted. I have no clue how I stayed relevant. I started experimenting pretty early. You need to grow, evolve, and that is what I always tried.”
I just had to say ‘Hi daddy’ for my first shot and it still took five takes-Raveena Tandon
8:31 AM
As told to Akash Bhatnagar (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 21, 2020)
I was always inclined towards production and direction, no one ever imagined I’d become an actress. I was in the eighth standard when I started assisting dad (filmmaker Ravi Tandon) during vacations. When I was in the tenth standard, I got a call from ace photographer Shantanu Sheorey’s assistant Amrita Sehgal. They were looking for new models and wanted to do a photoshoot with me. I told her my dad will get back to them and forgot all about it. But she was persistent and promised me a portfolio by Shantanu, which is when I spoke to dad who left the choice to me. And I finally said “yes” to Amrita.Those pictures went around, and I got my first ad for a shampoo brand. I interned with ad guru Prahlad Kakkar during my summer break and after graduating, joined him full time. I became the in-house model who would fill up for absentees. I was still just a lowly assistant, but everyone would tell me I was made for the screen. I didn’t take them seriously.
Then, one day, while hanging out with friends at a pizzeria, I was spotted by the late director Anant Balani and Vivek Vaswani. They recognised me as Ravi Tandon’s daughter and got in touch with producer G P Sippy saab. I’d done a couple of ads with Salman’s (Khan) friend, Bunty Walia, who was also a model then. A few days later, when I was shooting for an ad in Bandra, Bunty called, asking me to step out of the studio. Outside, he wondered if I’d do a film with Salman, who was also there with him. I was so shocked, I only mumbled that I’d have to ask dad. Vivek and Sippy saab called him and before I knew it, I was signed for Patthar Ke Phool.
I’d been offered a couple of films before that, including Fateh, Heer Ranjha, Jungle and a project by Anwar Ali. I refused all of them and only gave my nod to Patthar Ke Phool because my colleagues were huge Salman fans and told me they would swing by my set to watch him from far. After that, I could quit acting if I wanted to.
Two days after I gave my nod, we had a photoshoot with Sheena, Ramesh Sippy’s daughter. I didn’t even have a stylist and had to wear Sheena’s clothes. I didn’t even get a makeup man and had never acted in my life. They made it easy for me. For the first shot, I had to excitedly walk into the living room with a “Hi Daddy”. It still took five takes to be okayed, but Manohar Singh ji, who was playing my dad, was very sweet and encouraging.
After a couple of scenes with him, they moved on to some songs with Salman. I had no training in dance and only after we started shooting, I joined Kathak maestro Gopi Krishna ji to learn adas and expressions for two months. While I was shooting those songs, I was simultaneously giving my first-year junior college exams. Choreographers Chinni Prakash ji and Rekha still remind me how I’d bring my textbooks to the set and study in a corner.
Salman and I first shot for the skating song, “Tumse Jo Dekhte Hi”, and had our first childish squabble while doing a photo shoot for “Kabhi Tu Chaliya Lagta Hai” over bubble gum.
I helplessly spread out my hands. Aftab Shivdasani puked on them and I ran to wash them-Raveena Tandon
7:46 AM
As told to Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 8, 2018)
My father had instilled in my brother and I a sense of self-reliance.
Even during vacations, we were expected to earn our pocket money doing
odd jobs, like cleaning the car or arranging the wardrobe for which we
would get paid Rs 10 to Rs 20. So I started working when I was really
young and looked forward to growing up and earning some big money.When I was in the eighth standard, I assisted my dad (Ravi Tandon) on a movie he was making during the school holidays. I was on a threemonth break after my 10th standard board exams before enrolling for college and joined Prahlad Kakkar at his ad agency. Around the same time I got a call from ace photographer Shantanu Sheorey’s office saying he was on the hunt for new models and wanted to click me. I didn’t take that offer seriously because I was plump then, wore glasses and my hair in a long plait, and didn’t think I had the look of a model. So I started working on prep and post-production with Prahlad.
I would take bus No. 231 from Juhu to Santacruz and then a train to Mahalakshmi from where I would walk to Prahlad’s office at Everest building. Even after college started, I continued working with him, attending lectures from 7am to 10.30 am after which I would leave for work and return home only around 11pm because ad shoots can be erratic. If it got extremely late, we called Mohammed bhai, who had a private taxi to drop the girls home. Sometimes I would take a lift with my friend Farah Khan Ali, Sanjay Khan’s daughter, who was also interning with me and had her own car.
At the office I would even sweep floors. There was this huge sign underlining the fact that we were not Prahlad’s workers but his slaves. In today’s day and age it’s a politically incorrect declaration but back then we took it as a joke.
Once, Aftab Shivdasani, who was about 10 then was shooting a chocolate ad at the office. He had to keep eating chocolate and after the 24th or 25th take he got sick. I had just swept the floor and was standing with a clapper board waiting to announce the next shot and give the clap.
Suddenly I saw Aftab gag not once but twice, and realising that if he threw up I would have to wipe the floor clean, I chucked the clapper board and started desperately looking for a bucket but couldn’t find one. Prahlad’s lips were quivering in slow motion, “He is going to puke.” I didn’t know what to do and helplessly spread out my hands. Aftab puked on them and I ran to wash them.
I initially worked for Prahlad for free as it was an internship, then he started paying me a salary of Rs 1,000 a month. He used to keep telling me, ‘You are not meant to be behind the camera, you are wasting your time.' When I got Patthar Ke Phool, Prahlad said ‘Just go ahead and say yes.’ I didn’t even take any acting or dance classes, I just signed the film and next day I was on set shooting.
I’m yet to collect my salary from Prahlad because once I got busy with movies, I forgot all about it. But I do remember I once did an ad for noodles for which I got Rs 500, my first paycheque, and bought a tape recorder for my mother. She used to love listening to the radio and would turn it on when she woke us up for school so a tape recorder was the best gift for her.
When I was 16, I was offered a jeans ad. At Film City I met this young, handsome guy who was modelling with me. He looked at me and exclaimed, “You should be doing movies!” He repeated this to my mom and I snapped, “I don’t want to do movies.” He later admitted that even he was not interested in modelling and wanted to be a designer. That man was Manish Malhotra.
A year later, I was shooting for a magazine cover after signing my debut film Patthar Ke Phool with Salman Khan and Manish was designing my clothes.
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