Raveena Tandon: Manish Malhotra told me, I should be doing movies

Raveena Tandon recalls her journey and she also made some revelations also. The actress spoke about her childhood as well. “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 three-month break after my 10th standard board exams before enrolling for college and joined Prahlad Kakkar at his ad agency. “


She further added, “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. 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.”


The actress further added, “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,” said the actress.


Raveena Tandon recalls an ad she did earlier and about her meeting with Manish Malhotra, “When I was 16, I was offered a jeans ad. At Filmcity 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.”