Salman Khan’s heroine once cleaned vomit from studio floors. She rejected Shah Rukh Khan’s 1993 blockbuster because she was ‘uncomfortable.’ Later, both of her movies with SRK flopped

Raveena Tandon was not the number one actress in the 90s; nevertheless, she was one of the most sought-after female leads who had hit pairings with Akshay Kumar, Govinda, Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn, Sunny Deol, etc. However, despite being the daughter of filmmaker Ravi Tandon, Raveena did not start her career in Bollywood. She was for a while an intern to veteran ad man Prahlad Kakkar. In an interview with Mid Day, she recalled her time as an intern, where she often had to clean vomit off the floor and pose as a model when models were not present.

“I did start from cleaning the studio floors to wiping off vomit from the stalls' floors and studio floors and stuff, and I did assist Prahlad Kakkar I think straight out of 10th Standard. Every time when a model would not turn up on Prahlad's set, he used to say 'call Raveena,' he would ask me to do my makeup and start posing. So I thought if I have to do it why should I do it for Prahlad again and again for free, why not make some pocket money out of it, and that's exactly the thought which started the modeling,” she said.

Eventually, Shantanu Shorey, a filmmaker, offered to cast her as a heroine; she hesitated. However, Prahlad reminded her she had an opportunity that was not available for many aspiring actresses. After some time, she was cast opposite Salman Khan. Her debut movie, Patthar Ka Phool, became one of the biggest hits of 1991. However, this was followed by a spate of flops; however, 1994 proved to be a turning point for her as four of her films became huge hits - Dilwale opposite Ajay Devgn, Aatish: Feel the Fire opposite Sanjay Dutt, Laadla opposite Anil Kapoor, and Mohra opposite Akshay Kumar.


In an interview with ANI, the actress said she turned down an opportunity to star opposite Shah Rukh Khan in the 1993 movie Darr at the beginning of her career, as she was uncomfortable with some scenes and the fact that Yash Chopra required her character Kiran to wear swimming suits.

“Darr came to me first. It wasn't vulgar, but there were some scenes I was not comfortable with. There were things like wearing a swimming costume, and I would say, 'No, I'll not wear that,” she said. The role eventually went to Juhi Chawla, and the movie became a blockbuster, making Khan a household name overnight even though he played a villain.

Coincidentally, SRK and Raveena did star in two films, Zamaana Deewana and Yeh Lamhe Judai Ke, both of which underperformed at the box-office.