Raveena Tandon: It has been a year of awards for me, but the Padma Shri tops it all – Times of India

Raveena Tandon feels a deep sense of gratitude for being conferred with the Padma Shri Award, which was announced on the eve of Republic Day. The actress, who started her career in 1991 with Patthar Ke Phool, went on to become a popular and extremely successful actress who proved her mettle with a range of roles in commercial and critically acclaimed films, including some unforgettable and powerful performances in films like Aks, Daman (for which she also won the National Film Award for Best Actress), Satta among others. Raveena recently forayed into OTT and won the Filmfare Best Actress Award in 2022 for the film Aranyak.

(A still from the film Aranyak)

Talking to BT, she said, “I am very honoured and grateful. I want to thank everyone for their love and support. It is because of their love that I have remained in the industry for so many years and am still here. It’s been a year of awards for me, but this honour tops it all.”

(A still from the film Patthar Ke Phool)
Beaming with excitement, she added, “My family was ecstatic and called to congratulate me as I was not in Mumbai when the awards were announced. I feel a great sense of pride and achievement when your work is appreciated.”
Sharing her views on how Indian cinema has undergone a sea change when it comes to roles for women actors, Raveena said, “It is amazing to see the kind of roles being written for women protagonists. It has changed the perspective of the audience as well. People are appreciating real characters now; hence, there is a lot of scope for good content.”

The actress was also vocal about how she is happy with the kind of roles offered to her. She added, “It is interesting to see the kind of roles that are being written and the experimentation that directors are doing with varied genres on OTT projects. I wanted to explore this platform because it excited me to do something challenging. In an OTT film or series, you can push boundaries to see what you can do differently as an actor. You have the time to completely lay out your character for the audience. Unlike a two-hour film, in an OTT series, you can play with the nuances to establish what the character is.”

Raveena is dedicating her Padma Shri to her late father and producer-director Ravi Tandon, who passed away last February. “This award is for my dad. In February, it’s going to be a year since he passed away. I know he is watching me and beaming with pride,” she says on an emotional note.