When Raveena Tandon returned to films after 4 years in an over-the-top role for Amitabh Bachchan: ‘How could I say no?’

Bollywood actor Raveena Tandon has seen euphoric highs and rather turbulent lows in her career and personal life in the past two decades.

She has never held back from talking about her rough phases, including a broken engagement with a leading actor, tabloid rumours and her search for peace, which saw her adopting two children and later marrying Anil Thadani.

At one point, Raveena Tandon found herself without a career and a personal life. While she had often expressed her bitterness about the disloyalty she faced in a poignant relationship, later she told Simi Garewal that she didn’t want to blame just one person.

She also elaborated on why she almost gave up her career in acting, “I was engaged to be married. I quit my career in advance because we did think, the last day of shooting was when we’ll get married. I gave it up for a commitment.”

Later, Raveena Tandon found love in producer Anil Thadani, and their relationship ‘happened in fast forward’ as she told ETC. “Meeting Anil was not intentional. It started from his side, he is the one who asked me out. I’ve always wanted a simple, honest, good man more than anything else.

The first time I met him, I had a crush on him, because he had such a decent good-boy looks.” Calling her relationship happening in ‘fast-forward’, my parents were sceptical because they thought everything was happening too fast.

We met in August, were engaged in October, and February we were married and by June we were pregnant.” The couple has two kids together. At the age of 21, Raveena had adopted two girls, Pooja and Chaya, both of whom are mothers now. The actor had adopted Pooja and Chhaya in the 90s.

“This was before Mohra (1994). My mother and I used to visit orphanages like Asha Sadan on our weekends. When my cousin passed away he left behind two young daughters, Chaya and Pooja. I didn’t like the way their guardian was treating them so I took them home with me. I didn’t think much of it. It came naturally to me. I wanted to give the girls the life they deserved. I’m not a multi-billionaire but I do what I can to help,” she told Miss Malini.

Talking about becoming a grandmother at the age of 46, Raveena had said, “Technically, the minute that word comes, people think you’re 70-80 years old. When I had taken in my girls I was 21, and my eldest was 11. We actually just have an 11-year gap between us.”

Raveena’s career has been in meteoric flashes, yet she’s never faded from the public consciousness, despite her best efforts at times. If she made her impact with timeless comedies like Andaz Apna Apna, she has also acted in intense, and serious films such as Shool and Daman, which earned her the National Award.

Raveena continues to be extremely selective about her films, and even for cameos in films, she has had to be coerced. For instance, when she was offered a cameo in Bbuddha Hoga Tera Baap, she refused it. “I hadn’t worked for four years and I didn’t want to make a comeback in a cameo.

It was a very over-the-top role, supposed to be wearing pink jeans and yellow scarves. So I said I’ll do the over-the-top role but not wear joker-kind clothes. But then Amitabh Bachchan called, so how can I say no, then?”