Actor Raveena Tandon has addressed in an interview why she declined filmmaker Karan Johar’s offer to work in his film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998). She said Karan is still not happy with what she did during that time. She said that back then, she could not afford to take on small roles in films. She called Kajol her ‘contemporary’ and wanted to take lead roles just like her. Kuch Kuch Hota starred Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukerji in prominent roles.
In a conversation with Smita Prakash for news agency, Raveena said Karan has still not forgiven her for rejecting his offer to act in his film. “Karan still does not forgive me for not doing Kuch Kuch Hota Hai but he did not understand at the time because Kajol was my contemporary. We started together, we both did lead roles, so I could not have done Kuch Kuch Hota hai where I was at a lower, probably smaller role than Rani’s role which was a smaller role. Rani benefitted from it because she was a new comer and suddenly she came across as oh my god, this is awesome, you know. So that was the difference that would have happened, and that’s what I told Karan.”
She continued, and said, “It was just that I wanted to place myself more as an actor rather than again doing something with just five scenes and five superhit songs. So even now, there are times when people, don’t look beyond me than my hit songs, actually it is a hindrance. Every time, I go people are talking about my songs, what about the performances?”
Karan, in a conversation with Talent Next launch, said that he was really unhappy when a lot of leading actors declined to act in his film. He told, “I had asked everyone. Main bhikari ban chuka tha uss film mai (I bacme a beggar already). Eight heroines had already rejected me for the Rani Mukerjee’s role. Mujhe laga, agar koi na mile toh mujhe khud short skirt pehen ke woh role karna padega (I thought if I don’t get anyone to act for Rani’s role then, I might end up wearing short skirt to act in the movie).
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was directed by Karan Johar, and produced by Yash Johar. At an event in 2018 to celebrate 20 years of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Shah Rukh had called the film’s original story ‘utterly nonsensical’. He said, “Karan came and narrated an utterly nonsense crap story to me; which is certainly not the one that finally you people saw in the film. In his strange way Karan, the man with many words tried to impress me with his crap story. So yes, I really did not understand the story when I signed in. and I am glad that I did not get into the story and just went ahead with the conviction of Karan, otherwise the film would have not been the way it came out.”
Raveena was last seen in KGF: Chapter 2. She will be next seen in Ghudchadi alongside Sanjay Dutt. She also has Arbaaz Khan’s Patna Shukla and the second installment of her Netflix web series, Aranyak as her upcoming projects.