Raveena Tandon reveals RGV didn’t want to cast her in Shool, kept saying ‘I can only see you do Ankhiyon Se Goli Mare’

Raveena Tandon has revealed she had to try really hard to convince Shool producer Ram Gopal Varma to let her do the film. The 1999 film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and featured Raveena as a housewife. 

Raveena has revealed that director Eeshwar Nivas was absolutely convinced with her playing Manjari bhabhi, a lower middle class housewife from Bihar but Ram Goal Varma (RGV) was not convinced at all. He kept on saying, “No yaar Raveena. I shut my eyes and I can only see you do Ankhiyon Se Goli Mare. How will we do this,” said Raveena recalling the conversation. Raveena had starred in the hit song Ankhiyon Se Goli Mare in her 1998 film Dulhe Raja. 

The actor shared the story during the Actors’ Roundtable 2021 with Rajeev Masand. Raveena said that they did the banner shoot, poster shoot, publicity shoot before they started shooting for the film. Sharing the story, Raveena said, “We are still shooting stills for Rakesh Shrestha. I get out of my make-up room and am walking through the corridor in that Manjari bhabhi look. Ramu (RGV) is coming from the front and I look at him and say, ‘Ramu, hi, how are you doing? We are waiting for you, we have already started.’ And he nodded.”

“Suddenly after 5-7 minutes I hear, ‘oh my god, Raveena! That was you’, and I rested my case,” she added. 

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Ram Gopal Varma was also the writer of the film besides being the producer. Manoj Bajpayee played the lead role of Raveena’s husband, Inspector Samar Pratap Singh. The film revolved around the politician-criminal nexus and the criminalisation of politics in Bihar and its effect on the life of an honest police officer. Shilpa Shetty had done a special dance number in the film, Main Aayi Hoon U.P. Bihar Lootne.

Raveena recently made her digital debut with the web show Aranyak, on Netflix. She plays the role of a police officer on the show, which is a murder mystery set in the fictional town of Sironah.