Why did Raveena Tandon reject 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'?

Before Rani Mukerji took on the role of Tina in ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, many popular female actors of the time rejected the role and Raveena Tandon was one of them. But, in Raveena’s case, the reason she chose not to do the film was that she was coming back after a sabbatical and believed that her career was ‘zero’, so she did not want to play a second lead. Raveena also shared that one of the reasons that she chose to not do Dil Se’s ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ was because she did not want to be labeled as the ‘item girl’.

“When Karan came to me for ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, unfortunately, I was at a time when my career was zero. I was restarting entirely after the sabbatical and I was quite messed up and for me, it was something that I wanted,” Tandon told a leading news portal.

Raveena noted that it was a ‘nice role’, but she was concerned that she would be playing a second lead to one of her contemporaries, Kajol, which wouldn’t have fared well for her career.

“It was very difficult for me to explain to Karan about the situation that I was in. I really regret that to date and we are still trying to work together,” she said.

Raveena said that had she done the role, she would have only been offered second leads in other films.

She added that she had just done Rakshak’s song ‘Sheher Ki Ladki’ and she wanted to get back to the stardom that she had enjoyed with ‘Mohra’ and ‘Dilwale’, where she was the solo lead and enjoyed author-backed roles.

“I wanted to get back to that standing and unfortunately. What happened with me was after ‘Sheher Ki Ladki’, I got offered so many ‘item songs’ like they were called at that time,” she said and recalled getting offered Dil Se’s ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’.

“My biggest regret is also ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ by the way. I hear ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ and still get a pain in my heart. Mani sir called me. Shah Rukh had called me and said to do this, but I was getting stereotyped as an item girl.”

Apart from Raveena, Shilpa Shetty also refused ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ and it was ultimately done by Malaika Arora.