Raveena Tandon dismisses rivalry with Kajol, Shilpa Shetty: ‘There is no dirty politics’

The actor revealed that she was often replaced in her earlier films, on the insistence of the hero’s girlfriend. She also laughed that after the two broke up, and the hero had returned to her with a work offer.

Talking to RJ Siddharth Kanan, she said she had been replaced ‘intentionally’ because the girl did not like her and was insecure. “She was dating a hero at that time and forced him to replace me because we were a hit pair. Forced him to replace with other heroines. So I lost out on 1-2 films on that account,” she said.

She continued that the same heroine pressurised another favourite hero of hers to replace her in a film. The hero told Raveena that the female lead had cried so much, that he decided to change his mind.  “She came to me and cried so much, saying that she was our old gang member and asked us how dare we approach you. So, the director and me decided to cast her as a token of our loyalty to her,” Raveena recounted.

Raveena mentioned that the heroine dumped the actor after a few years, and he came to Raveena asking her to do the film. “He came to me, ‘arey uski film thi yar, tu please abhi mere liye karde, wo beech me chhod ke chali gai (It was her film but please you do it for me, she has quit in between).’ Maine kaha main to tereko pahle se bolti thi ki uski fitrat hi aisi hai (I told him that I had already warned you about her nature). It was very funny, actually,” she said.

Asked about being pitted against Karisma Kapoor, Kajol and Shilpa Shetty, who were leading ladies of the 90’s, Raveena refuted rumours of rivalry and said there were was no cut-throat or ‘dirty politics’. She said that Shilpa and her have ‘been friends from day 1’. “We’ve done films together. Kajol and me have been friends. It’s nothing of that sort.” She added that however, there were a few who played ‘dirty games’ and indulged in ‘dirty gossip’, and she is glad that she stayed away from it all.

One of Raveena’s most iconic songs back in the 90’s was Tip Tip Barsa Pani, and there was much debate when it was announced that the song would be recreated for Akshay Kumar’s film Sooryavanshi, with Katrina Kaif. However, Raveena said she was impressed with the outcome. She said, “They did so well.” During the Kapil Sharma Show, Farah Khan had revealed that the most pressure she got while choreographing the sequence was from Raveena. The actor laughed and said that she was glad that the choreography was in able hands like Farah Khan, and it was someone that she could trust.