Shool turns 25: Celebrating a classic tale of grit and corruption
Celebrating 25 years of 'Shool', the powerful 1999 film that spotlighted corruption and grit, starring Manoj Bajpayee and Raveena Tandon.
Actress Raveena Tandon, who is receiving a lot of good response to her recently released show ‘Karmma Calling’, has shared that filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma was not in favour of casting her in ‘Shool’ on which he served as the producer.
The actress revealed that the director of the film, E. Nivas was convinced of casting her for the film and he put his foot down and went ahead with the promo shoot. During the promo RGV failed to recognise Raveena.
Walking down the memory lane, the actress told IANS: “‘Shool’ was a challenge that I wanted to pick up because it was the role of a Bihari housewife. E. Nivas, the director of the film, was very keen on signing me but Ram Gopal Varma, being the producer and a very dear friend, had issues with signing me for the film. He used to say, ‘Ravs, main apni aankhen band karta hoon, tu mujhe ‘Akhiyon Se Goli Maare’ karte hue dikhaayi deti hai. So, I can’t visualise you as the character’.”
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“E. Nivas, and Anurag Kashyap, the writer of the film, were absolutely convinced on casting me for the role. The director put his foot down telling Ramu that he is doing the promo shoot for the film.”
On the day of shoot, when everything was set, and Raveena got done with the make-up to suit the character, she walked to her mark in a cotton saree.
She said, “I saw Ramu crossing me. I told him’ Hey Ramu, how are you’. He just smiled and nodded reciprocating the gesture but didn’t say anything. I thought, ‘yaar ye toh bada bhadka hua hai. Such a cold reaction, he really doesn’t want me in the film’.”
“I went to my mark and posed for the camera. While we were rolling, Ramu walked out of the washroom and screamed, ‘Oh my God, Ravs, it was you!’
“He said he failed to recognise me for the first time I greeted him,” she added.
‘Karmma Calling’ streams on Disney+ Hotstar.
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