Interview Actor - Raveena Tandon HindiSong.com

Raveena turns producer

Movie interview: Raveena tandon

“I felt the need to do something besides acting”

When the Kargil war had happened Raveena was one of the first stars to visit the wounded soldiers and what could be more motivating for her than to make a film on the issue as soon as she turned producer? Her film Stumped deals with the issues of cricket in the time of war in a satirical way.

Was your experience with the soldiers the trigger for this film?

I don’t know but when Gaurav Pande came to me with the script, I found it was very different. The idea was so uniquely ironical and I liked the fact that none of us had thought about it like that. We are talking about 1999 when the world cup was going on and the Kargil war was on too but each time you switched on the TV you saw only cricket. Very little importance was given to the war in comparison. And the boys who were dying at the border. It’s a nice story. There is a celebration on the one hand and mourning on the other. The whole situation was ironic and I liked the idea and thought let’s do it. So we are making it.

Whose script is it?

Gaurav Pande. He’s written it and is directing it too.

And is he new or has he had some experience?

Gaurav was associate director on Basu Bhattacharya’s Aastha and has done some TV work.

How did you form the production company?

I felt the need to do something besides acting so Priti Sinha and I teamed up. Priti is Vinay Sinha’s daughter who made films like Andaz apna apna etc. I knew Suneil Shetty and we all decided to become partners so his Popcorn Entertainment and the two of us formed the ReelLife Entertainment India Pvt Ltd.

What about the Sahara backing?

That is for the film Pehchaan-that is being financed by Sahara but produced by us. So we are partners.Pehchaan is being directed by Shrabani Deodhar. Stumped is solely our own.

Will you star in all your films?

No not at all. There is one more film which will be directed by E Niwas which I will be doing. . We are making another film with Sanjay Jha which will have two other girls.

Who have you cast in Stumped?

There are a lot of people from theatre plus Raveena and Aly Khan. Others are Smita Hai, Viju Khote, Anjan srivastava, Priti koppikar, Asha Sachdev, Amin Hajjee among others.

How is the experience of production?

We enjoy it and also we learn so much everyday.

How well do you expect the film to do?

This is not a normal commercial film-it’s a light film. It’s not a hero/ heroine kind of film-All characters have equal footage. The undercurrent is serious and patriotic but it’s a satire so it’s a light film. We know it’ll have a limited audience and probably only in the metros but we are hoping that it’ll reach the common man. It’s something on the lines of Jaane bhi do yaaron.

And Pehchaan?

I’d call it a family drama. It’s courtroom drama between a father in law and daughter in law. Both are lawyers and they fight a case against each other. The fight is between right and wrong. It has Vinod Khanna, Rati Agnihotri, Raveena, Sudhanhu Pandey and Diwakar Pundir.

Whose script is that?