Raveena Tandon was originally supposed to be part of Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do, but opted out of it because she didn’t look old enough to be convincing as Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra’s mother.
Says a source, “Zoya was very keen to have Raveen starring as Anil Kapoor’s wife. But when Raveena did a photo-shoot, she looked more like Priyanka’s sister rather than her mother. Zoya suggested that Raveena put on weight and add wrinkles on her face through makeup, but Raveena didn’t want like the idea. That was when Shefali was brought in.”
Raveena, says a close friend of hers, also turns down lucrative ads which require her to endorse domestic products with children, because “she knows that playing a mother on screen is the end of her career as a leading lady.”
Tabu, who has played Shahid Kapoor’s mother in Haider and will now be playing Aditya Roy Kapoor’s mother in Fitoor, would find it very difficult to swing back into the romantic mode with heroes her age. Once Waheeda Rehman played mom to Jaya Bhaduri in Phagun, it was end of her career as a leading lady.
“Why would Raveena do that to her career when, after seeing her brief appearance in Bombay Velvet, critics said she should have been paired with Ranbir Kapoor instead of Anushka Sharma?” asks Raveena’s friend.
