Raveena Tandon opens up on ‘Affairs’ in Bollywood

Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon has opened up about the monopoly in the industry as well as her own experience.

The actress was popular during the 1990s, starring in a mix of comedy, drama and action films.

While Raveena achieved fame, she revealed that the journey was not easy for her.

In an interview with Pinkvilla, she said that during her starting days, there was a lot of voyeuristic journalism. This comes as many discuss Bollywood camps which target actors today.

Raveena explained that there were stories written about her alleged affairs. She also revealed that she was replaced in some films after refusing to sleep with prominent members of the cast.

She stated: “I never compromised or slept around with heroes or having affairs for a role in Bollywood.”

Raveena went on to say that she was considered arrogant for not giving in to the male stars’ demands.

In fact, many even tried to end her career, however, she survived and has spoken about the experience.

“There used to be these cabals which used to have the heroes, their girlfriends and their journalist chamchas.

“What used to shock me was that a lot of these female journalists would do something like this to another woman. When they now stand up and say, we’re feminists and writing ultra-feminist columns, I’m like really?”

She revealed more about the Bollywood monopoly.

“That time, they never supported me because the hero promised them the next cover. There was a monopoly happening at that time.

“I may have lost movies because of honesty but a lot of dirt was written about me.

“I never clawed on people’s back, played cut-throat politics and never stepped on people’s toes either.”

“I didn’t have godfathers, wasn’t part of camps and didn’t have heroes promoting me. I was not sleeping around with heroes for roles or having affairs.

“In a lot of cases, I was considered arrogant because I wasn’t pandering to what the heroes wanted me to do – laughing when they wanted me to laugh, sitting when they asked me to sit. I was doing my own thing.

“Surprisingly, female journalists would always try to bring me down. I just wanted to live on my own terms.”

Shortly after the tragic death of Sushant Singh Rajput, Raveena Tandon revealed that camps do exist in Bollywood.

She said that there was a “mean girl” gang in the industry before drawing on her own experience, saying that she was made fun of and removed from films by actors, their girlfriends and fake news stories by journalists.

Raveena wrote another tweet: “When you speak the truth, you are branded a liar, mad, psychotic.

Chamcha journos write pages and pages destroying all the hard work that you might have done.

Even though born in the industry, grateful for all it has given me, but dirty politics played by some can leave a sour taste.”