She is best remembered as the `mast mast` girl for her sensual moves, but Raveena Tandon, now a mother of two, says she has left her "jhatka-matkas" behind and has signed two "tough and challenging" films.
"I really don`t think I will do the dancing type of movies with `jhatka-matkas` any more. Every actor goes through a phase and so did I. At that time, there were these dances that I used to be known for. But I`ve grown out of it. I like doing unconventional, serious and message-based cinema now," Raveena told reporters in an interview.
The 35-year-old, who was in the capital as a celebrity guest for the Good Housekeeping Show 2010, was earlier seen in a slew of commercial potboilers like ‘Mohra’ and ‘Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi’. But later she chose to work in more serious cinema like ‘Shool’, ‘Daman’ and ‘Satta’.
Raveena, who is married to film distributor Anil Thadani, took a break from movies to bring up her children. But she did appear as a judge on two reality shows.
The actress, who was last seen in ‘Sandwich’ in 2006, has now signed two off-beat films.
"I have signed two very tough and challenging films. One is based in Rajasthan - that`s a very strong, female-oriented film. The other is a bilingual made in Bengali and Hindi. It`s by a Kolkata-based production company and is being directed by Raja Sen, who has won multiple National Awards," Raveena said.
The script of the bilingual movie ‘The Laboratory’ is based on a story written by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, she said.
"This is a story about a Sikh woman who gets married to a Bengali scientist, who dies soon. Then how, being an uneducated person, she educates herself and brings that whole laboratory of his husband back to life and fights culture differences is what makes the story. I, of course, play the Punjabi woman," Raveena said.
In the Rajasthan-based untitled film too, the actress is playing an inspirational role.
Without divulging much, she said: "This movie is about a woman`s fight against an age-old tradition that has been there in Rajasthan since years and which truly prevails till date in some of the backward areas there. The story is about how she fights the social evil."
So are power women finally catching up in Bollywood?
"Yes. In fact, power women on screen have been happening for some time now. At times there are glamorous roles that you want to be associated with and there are times when you want to be part of strong films like `Shool` and `Satta` (that) are equally important," she said.
