Raveena Tandon Shares The Experience Of Acting In Daman

Actress Raveena Tandon has recently been awarded the Padma Shri, which she says is the second time she has felt this happy. The first time was when she received the National Film Award for Best Actress for her movie Daman in 2001. The award was presented to her in New Delhi. She has received many compliments, with friends saying it was long overdue. Tandon shares that her Twitter feed is full of congratulatory messages.

The honor has been a validation of the films that Tandon has chosen throughout the last thirty years. She has balanced hardcore masala films with those that address social issues, and this has been warmly appreciated by her fans. Tandon believes that Daman was ahead of its time as it addressed marital rape and domestic violence. These topics were rarely discussed in films during the 1990s. Heroines in those films always believed that their husbands could do no wrong, regardless of how bad their behavior was, and would stand by them. Tandon says that the emotions conveyed in movies back then were very different. Daman marked a massive change in the kind of films people were watching. It made people aware of issues still relevant today, such as the ongoing debate about whether or not marital rape should be criminalized. The movie also changed Tandon's image as an actor. Before the release of School and Daman, she was known only as a beautiful face in masala films. People started taking her seriously after she starred in these films. Tandon shares a funny anecdote about Ram Gopal Varma, the producer of School, who was unsure about casting her in the film. He only remembered her as the girl who danced to "Kisi Disco Mein Jaayein." However, when Tandon got into character for the role of Manjari Pratap Singh and showed up for the photo shoot in a cotton saree with her hair tied in a bun, Varma didn't recognize her. He only realized it was her when she stood in front of the camera. This experience proved to Tandon that she had succeeded in changing people's perceptions of her as an actor.