'Wasn't promoted as I refused to sleep around'

When one talks about superstars from the '90s, Raveena Tandon's name will always be one that pops right up there. Carefully treading between comedy, drama and action films, the actor carved a space for herself. But she revealed that the road was not easy for her. Speaking about how Bollywood camps target actors and monopolise the industry at large, the star shared experiences of her starting days in the '90s when voyeuristic journalism was at its peak.

Known for her no-nonsense and unapologetic nature, the 'Tip Tip Barsa Pani' actor shared incidents of how Bollywood cabals, male stars, contemporary heroines and their 'chamcha' journalists used to manipulate and destroy reputations of some of the actors back then. From stories being written about her affairs to getting her replaced in films because she did not want to cater to the hero's ego or sleep with them, she has faced it all. In fact, many even tried to end her career but she survived.

Raveena shared about her difficult journey, "There used to be these cabals which used to have the heroes, their girlfriends and their journalist 'chamchas'. What used to shock me was that a lot of these female journalists would do something like this to another woman. When they now stand up and say, we are feminists and writing 'ulta'-feminist columns, I'm like really? That time, they never supported me because the hero promised them the next cover. There was a monopoly happening at that time. I may not have lost movies because of honesty but a lot of dirt was written about me. I never clawed on people's back, played cut-throat politics and never stepped on people's toes either."

"I did not have godfathers. I was not part of camps and did not have heroes promoting me. I was not sleeping around with heroes for roles or having affairs. In a lot of cases, I was considered arrogant because I wasn't pandering to what the heroes wanted me to do - laughing when they wanted me to laugh and sitting when they asked me to sit. I was doing my own thing. Surprisingly, female journalists would always try to bring me down. I just wanted to live on my own terms," added the actor.