Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon recently shared that she turned down the opportunity to work on the popular song ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ from Shah Rukh Khan’s film ‘Dil Se’.
The song ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ is known for its iconic video featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Malaika Arora dancing on top of a moving train, directed by Mani Ratnam.
In an interview with the BBC, Tandon disclosed that she was offered the song but declined the offer, fearing that she would be typecast by doing an item song.
“I had just done ‘Sheher Ki Ladki’, right? And it had become a very big hit,” she explained. “Organically, ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ came to me and I remember SRK saying that ‘Mani sir wants to talk to you because he wants you to do the song for us’.”
Tandon admitted, “And I was in a very awkward situation because although I was dying to work with Mani Ratnam Sir but then just being offered an item song again, it would have been stereotyping myself and in those days people used to get typecast, you used to get stereotyped.”
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She also mentioned that in retrospect, she might have made a different decision.
“I knew the song was rock solid. There were no two ways, you just had to hear the song and completely fall in love with it. It’s actually a difficult spot. I believe in the parallel life kind of thing,” Tandon added.
The ‘Mohra’ star further revealed that she turned down other hit projects starring Shah Rukh Khan including ‘Darr,’ ‘Desi Babu English Men,’ and ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’.
Speaking fondly of Shah Rukh Khan, Tandon expressed her admiration for him, describing him as one of the warmest people on this planet.
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