The sensational '90s actress of Bollywood, Raveena Tandon, had a difficult start to her love life. However, she found true love later on. Let's delve deep into how she was cheated by her former co-star and how she had handled it!
All the 90’s people, who were huge fans of Bollywood movies have grooved to Tu cheez badi hain mast mast at least once in their lives. While there was not much hype about DJ’s back in those days, there were a few patent Bollywood tracks that were played at every family function back then. While people had shown a lot of interest in those peppy songs, the mast mast girl of Bollywood, Raveena Tandon, had entertained the audience with such numbers back to back.
Besides her professional achievements, the sensuous actress, Raveena Tandon was much ahead of her time as she had made a bold decision to adopt two daughters, Pooja and Chaya at the mere age of 21. She had also balanced her professional life while raising her daughters. However, not many know about the turmoil she had to go through after getting heartbroken on her first failed attempt in love. But as they say, all's well that ends well, when we see Raveena happy now, we do believe that whatever happens, happens for a reason.
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Raveena Tandon had made her debut on the big screen with the movie, Patthar Ke Phool in 1991, where she had starred opposite superstar, Salman Khan. The movie was a major hit and this marked a permanent spot for Raveena in the director’s handbook back then. It was in her second film, Mohra (1994) where she met Akshay Kumar and her life (read love life) had taken a whole new turn.
Do you still feel that Tip Tip Barsa Paani is one of the sexiest songs that Bollywood has ever produced? That wet yellow saree, Raveena Tandon’s hot moves and Akshay’s passionate romance is something that people have remembered to date. Not only us, the stars, Raveena and Akshay were smitten with themselves and had decided to turn their on-screen romance into a real one. And hence, began one of the most heartbreaking love stories of Bollywood.
Things were going fine between Akshay and Raveena and they were often spotted spending quality time together. As they both hail from a Punjabi family, onlookers and fans were looking forward to a potential marriage scenario. The ex-couple also had an elaborate engagement. At a chat show, Raveena had spoken about their engagement and had shared:
“It was a voluntary decision. I was engaged to somebody I knew. This is what I wanted, to lead a very normal life. I quit in advance before marriage because we did think that when there will be last day of my shoot, we will go ahead and get married. Once I re-started my career, he again said that leave it and we will go ahead with the wedding. But, then I told him that once I chose you over my career, but now I will choose my career over you."
Raveena was also asked if they had married secretly. To this, she had replied:
“No, there was a very elaborate engagement ceremony. With the pandit doing pooja and everything. His family had flown down from Delhi, my family came from Delhi. One of his elders had put a red dupatta on my head, and I think that was mistaken to be a wedding.”
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Quite like any girlfriend, Raveena was well aware of what Akshay was up to, but she used to protect him from all sorts of linkup rumours. When the news of Akshay’s linkup with Rekha was going on in full swing in the media during the shooting of Khiladiyon ka Khiladi in 1996, Raveena had to intervene to ‘draw a line’ between the duo. In an interview with Cine Blitz back then, Raveena had shared:
“If this actress knows that we are together yet gets too close to Akshay, I will get my claws into her. But Akshay knows how to handle the situation I guess.”
But as per Raveena, Akshay was at no fault. In yet another interview with Rediff, she had shared around the same time:
“I don't think Akshay ever had anything to do with Rekha. As a matter of fact, he would run away from her. Akshay tolerated Rekha because of the film. At one point she wanted to get lunch dabbas for him from home. That's when I put my foot down. I felt it was taking things a bit too far.”
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Though he is a complete family man now, Akshay Kumar was quite termed as a ‘casanova’, who had flings with multiple actresses of his times. Things had taken an ugly turn and gone on a standstill when ‘enough was enough’ for Raveena and she had spoken of her estranged relationship and what had made her finally call it off with Akshay. In a chat show, she had shared:
“We started off as friends. We got to know each other only when we went together for a few shows in America and Canada. I think loyalty meant a lot to me, but I did not mean so much to him. He expected me to forgive and take him back every time. I did that for three years, until it was the last round."
In a throwback interview with Stardust in 1999, Raveena had cleared the air on her engagement and why Akshay had kept himself tight-lipped about all of this from the public. According to her, Akshay was a rising star and had a huge female fan following. He was scared that he might lose out on his female fans and his Bollywood career might come to a standstill if the news of his engagement was leaked. Raveena, on the other hand, was very open about their engagement to the public from the very beginning. She had stated:
“Akshay proposes to every girl and the speed on which he is going, he will soon have to address the parents of three-fourth of girls in Mumbai as 'Mom and Dad'".
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In a 1998 interview with Rediff.com, after Akshay Kumar and Raveena Tandon had decided to end their relationship, the former had confirmed the rumours of his engagement with the latter and had clarified that the rumours of their wedding were completely baseless. Though the couple had decided to part ways, post their breakup, Akshay Kumar and Raveena Tandon had worked together for the films, Barood and Keemat.
Reacting to his secret marriage reports with Raveena, Akshay had said:
"It was only an engagement which broke up later. But excuse me, we were not married at all. In fact, I've been shooting for a long time with Raveena even after we broke up."
After their ugly spat, Raveena and Akshay had parted ways. While Raveena had mostly stayed away from glitz and glamour and got busy with raising her two adopted daughters, she had also tried her hand at producing films. And that is how Raveena met the ‘man of her dreams’, Anil Thadani, who was in the business of film distribution. The duo had met for meetings and had kept their relationship mostly professional. Married to the daughter of Romu Sippy, Anil was going through a rough patch in his life and Raveena too was heartbroken. The sangam was perfect and the duo had started dating each other. It was in 2003, on the eve of Raveena’s birthday, that Anil had proposed to Raveena and she had said a ‘yes’! Following Anil's dreamy proposal, the duo had a low profile engagement in November 2003.
Like most of the girls, Raveena had wished for a grand wedding. On February 22, 2004, the stage was all set for Raveena and Anil’s marriage at Udaipur Palace. The Maatr actress had made her wedding grand to every possible extent. She entered her mandap, sitting in a 100-year old doli that had once carried the Queen of Mewar. She had looked beautiful in her wedding attire, which was her mother’s but was redesigned by Delhi based-designer Manav Gangwani, which had dazzling gold thread embroidery and exquisite stones.
Once, Raveena Tandon had attended a New Years’ party at Ritesh Sidhwani’s home, and Anil Thadani's ex-wife, Natasha Sippy had graced the party with her presence as well. While everyone else was enjoying themselves at the party, things had turned ugly between Raveena and Natasha and Raveena had ended up throwing grape juice at Natasha. According to a few spectators, who were present at the party, Natasha had tried to get close to Anil at that party, which had made Raveena react. In fact, Natasha was also spreading rumours that Anil had left her because of Raveena.
After the media hype, according to a report by Masala.com, Raveena had addressed the issue and had said:
“And I don't regret what happened. My husband Anil is the purest, cleanest person after God and my father. I won't allow anyone to cast aspersions on him. Any insult to him is an insult to me. No one can sully my family and get away with it."
The same portal had also put forward Natasha Sippy's part of the story in which she had claimed that Raveena was jealous of her and had started yelling at her and had thrown a glass at her, which had made her bleed. In her words:
"I had gone along with a group of friends to the New Years' party at Ritesh Sidhwani's place. I wasn't even bothered about Anil and Raveena and was doing my own thing. I was with Ritesh's cousin and since there were only two sets of sofas at the place, we decided to sit on one. Now if Raveena is so insecure that even if I am five feet close to her husband, she loses her cool, what can I say? She started yelling 'throw that s**t out of the party!' Then she threw a glass at me. I moved out but she continued with her yelling. Later, I realised that my finger was bleeding as the glass had cut my skin.”
The best thing is that all’s well settled in their respective lives now. Both Akshay and Raveena are happily married and have moved on in their loves and evolved as individuals, both professionally and personally. Well, not just Raveena, but actress, Shilpa Shetty Kundra also had a brief affair with Akshay Kumar. At a reality show, Super Dancer Chapter 2, both Shilpa and Raveena had taken a fun dig at their past. As reported by Mumbai Mirror, Raveena and Shilpa were giggling over their ‘common mistake’. A source had informed the tabloid:
“When Raveena mentioned that she has made a lot of mistakes in life, Shilpa winked, ‘Some of the mistakes were common,’ sending them into peals of laughter. At another point, everyone was discussing Golmaal when Raveena clapped back, ‘Everyone does golmaal in life, Shilpa and I have done it too. You know what I mean, right?”
It seems that Raveena has let bygones be bygones. At a group interview, Raveena had called Akshay Kumar's wife, Twinkle Khanna her ‘friend’. This is what she had said:
“We are friends and we all know each other in the industry, we all meet each other regularly.”
This was mostly about Raveena’s love life. What is good to note is both Akshay and Raveena are leading their lives with utmost grace and happiness. How did you like her story?
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