Raveena Tandon

Raveena Tandon
Tandon at Colors Golden Petal Awards in Dec 2012
Born	(1974-10-26) 26 October 1974 Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Actress, producer, TV host
Years active	1991–2006, 2011–present
Spouse(s)	Anil Thadani (2004–present)
Children	4
Relatives	Ravi Tandon (father) Rajiv Tandon (brother) Vishal Singh (cousin) Reshma Singh (cousin) Kiran Rathod (cousin)

Raveena Tandon (born 26 October 1974^[1]) is an Indian actress, producer, and a former model. She has primarily worked in Bollywood films, though she appeared in a few Tamil, Kannada and Telugu films as well.

Tandon made her acting debut with Patthar Ke Phool (1991), and won a Filmfare Lux New Face Award for her performance in the film. During the 90s, she was part of several commercial successes such as Dilwale(1994), Mohra (1994), Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996) and Ziddi (1997), among others. Despite attaining popularity, she was not particularly recognised as an actor. This however changed in the early 2000s, when she ventured into more serious roles and turned towards arthouse and parallel cinema. She got high critical acclaim for her performances in films like Aks (2001), Satta (2003), Shool (1999), and Sandhya (2002). She was at the peak of her career in 2002, when she won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kalpana Lajmi's Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence (2001).

She recently turned into TV host with the chat show, Isi Ka Naam Zindagi (2012).

Early life

Raveena Tandon was born on 26 October 1974 in Mumbai, to filmmaker Ravi Tandon and Veena. Her name is an amalgamation of her parents' name. She attended Jamnabai Narsee School in Juhu and studied at Mithibai College. She completed her first and second years at the college. During her time as an intern, she got her first film offer from Shantanu Sheorey which she accepted.^[2] She dropped out of college and decided to pursue her film career.^[2]

Her father was a producer and directed some films in the 1970s and 1980s. She has a brother named Rajiv Tandon, who had a brief career in Bollywood films. Her cousin, Kiran Rathod, is also Indian actress.^[3] Her other cousin, Reshma Singh, acted in television serials. A third cousin, Vishal Singh, is a successful actor for television serials.

Career

1991–94: Debut and breakthrough

Raveena Tandon debuted with the film Patthar Ke Phool (1991) which was a hit;^[4] she received the Filmfare Lux New Face Award for her performance.

Her next films Mohra (1994) and Dilwale (1994) were big hits at the box office whilst Laadla (1994), although an average performer, still earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. Mohra was the second biggest hit of 1994.^[5] Her other releases of that year included the thriller Imtihaan and the comedy Andaz Apna Apna. The former was also a hit.^[5]

1995–96: Rough patch

In 1995, she starred with Shahrukh Khan for the first time in Zamaana Deewana; the film failed to do well.^[6] Her next few films also failed to do well at the box office and her career saw a drop in her success as she apparently did not show any interest in doing more movies following her engagement with actor Akshay Kumar. She stopped working during this period due to personal problems and rejected many lucrative big budgeted movie offers that later went on to be blockbusters.

1996–99: Box office success

Her career was back on track with hit films like Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996)^[7] and Ziddi (1997), both being big hits each of its respective year.^[8] In 1997, she was to play her first villainous role in Dus but the film was shelved after the director's death when 40% of the film's shooting had been completed. She was also offered the 2nd lead in blockbuster movies "Dil to Pagal Hai" (1997) and "Gupt" (1997), but declined both movies as she had taken a sabbatical at the time. She also left another superhit, the Anil Kapoor-starrer "Virasat(1997)". Had she done all these movies she would have been the most successful actress of that time.

In 1998, Tandon had eight releases. Her last release of that year, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, co-starring Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda turned out to the second biggest hit of the year.^[9] Tandon was offered the second lead in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai which went on to be the biggest hit of 1998, but she turned it down.^[10] Her other releases of that year were Gharwali Baharwali which gained a below average status, Vinashak, Pardesi Babu and Aunty No. 1, all of which were unsuccessful.^[9]

In 1999, Tandon starred opposite Kannada superstar Upendra in his self-titled Kannada Telugu Psychological Thriller film, Upendra. The film was a blockbuster and won many awards including Filmfare Award for Best Film and Filmfare Award for Best Director.^[11][12]

2000–2005: National Award and critical acclaim

In the 2000s (decade), Tandon turned her career professionally. She went on to work more with art film directors and realistic cinema. It proved to be a good turning as films like Shool (1999), Bulandi (2000) and Aks (2001) won her huge acclaim. She won many awards as well as the Filmfare Special Performance Award for her performance in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Aks.^[13]

Her years in the industry paid off when she won the coveted National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kalpana Lajmi's Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence (2001), where she played a battered wife to an abusive husband.^[14] She surprised critics and audiences with her performance in the film and received much appreciation for her work. Critic, Taran Adarsh said, "Raveena Tandon lends credibility to the role of a battered wife and walks away with the honours. The pathos she conveys through her expressions makes you realise that she's a performer of substance".^[15]

Since then, she has starred in a number of critically acclaimed films, such as Satta (2003) and Dobara (2004), but has not had much box office success. Her role as a middle class woman thrust into the world of politics in the former was praised. Critic, Taran Adarsh wrote, "Raveena Tandon delivers a bravura performance. The actress takes giant strides as a performer, giving the right touches to her character. Here's a performance that's bound to be noticed".^[16] Her role as a schizophrenic in Dobara was also praised with one critic saying, "Raveena is in sync with her character, essaying her part with elaan".^[17] Her only release in 2006 was Sandwich which opened to poor reviews and reception.^[18] Tandon has also produced the films Stumped (2003) and Pehchaan: The Face of Truth (2005), neither of which had much success at the box office.

Personal life

She adopted two girls, Pooja and Chhaya, as a single mother in 1995 when they were 11 and 8 years old, respectively.^[19]

Tandon began dating film distributor Anil Thadani during the making of her film Stumped (2003). Their engagement was announced in November 2003.^[20] She married Thadani on 22 February 2004 in Jag Mandir Palace in Udaipur, Rajasthan according to Punjabi traditions.^[21] She gave birth to a baby girl named Rasha on 16 March 2005 and had her second child, a baby boy named Ranbir, on 12 July 2007.^[22]

Controversies

Tandon was chairperson of the Children's Film Society of India from 2003, but from 2004 the actress began to get complaints that she did not attend the organisation's meetings and that she was not involved with the activities set up by the society. In September 2005, Tandon resigned from her post citing personal reasons.^[23]

In November 2005, Tandon sued the websites, Shaadi.com and Shaaditimes.com, claiming that they were using unauthorized images of her to promote the site. She also sued the owner Satyanet Solutions, as they claimed that Tandon and her husband had met through the website.^[24]

Commitments

In November 2002, Tandon signed on to support the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She has posed in many advertisement campaigns joining the likes of Shilpa Shetty, Amisha Patel and John Abraham. On the issue of cows being slaughtered for their skin, she said "their abuse at the hands of corrupt skin and meat traders must be stopped".^[25]

Awards

• 1992: Filmfare Lux New Face Award, Patthar Ke Phool
• 2002: Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards Best Supporting Actress, Aks^[26]
• 2002: National Film Award for Best Actress, Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence
• 2002: Filmfare Special Performance Award, Aks
• 2002: Star Screen Award Best Supporting Actress, Aks
• 2002: Bollywood Movie Award – Best Supporting Actress, Aks
• 2002: Bollywood Movie Award – Critics Award Female, Aks
• 2002: Awadh Samman by the Government of Uttar Pradesh

Filmography

Films

Television

See also

• List of Indian actresses

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Raveena Tandon.

• Raveena Tandon at the Internet Movie Database
• Raveena Tandon to host a chat show