‘I was called thunder thighs,’ Raveena Tandon on being body-shamed, alleges Bollywood actors got ‘false’ stories published about her

Mumbai, February 15

She was the quintessential symbol of sensuality during the ’90s. Even when her iconic number ‘Tip Tip Barsa Paani’ has been recreated by a leading actor (Katrina Kaif) of the recent generation, a majority of netizens opined that the former’s oomph factor can’t be matched. She is none other than, the ‘Mast Mast’ girl Raveena Tandon.

Speaking exclusively with ANI, Raveena spoke about issues ranging from body shaming to toxic gossip magazines which could ruin someone’s career. Asked about the gossip magazines of the bygone eras, Raveena said quite unambiguously, “90s gossip magazines were the worst. And some of those women, now I see, roaming around today carrying the women’s lib badge over their heads and hearts, who were the worst enemies of women, who body-shamed women, slut shamed women and would do everything possible to bring another woman down. Today they roam around being as biggest feminists, I wonder when did that happen? If I start telling stories about them….(chuckles).”

Raveena is celebrated for her physical charm and beauty till date. Common people don’t believe that she was ever body-shamed in the industry. During her interaction with Smita Prakash, the ‘Daman’ actor said, “No no, Please I was called a lot of things. 90s ke kholo, TTs, thunder thighs…miss this and miss that…” The actor continued, “I was plump actually. Started at 16 and a half years, and I was full of baby fat yaar… which still hasn’t gone. Though I don’t care now, I am being like that, I am like that, too bad!” Being told that she is exaggerating the facts, Raveena said, “I remember some of these titles. And not only me, but some other heroines are also called that. Besides that, instead of supporting women, what they did was…firstly all these women editors would fall in love with the heroes. And what the heroes said were the last words. If he wanted to pan a woman, the woman would be panned, shamed, literally, her career ruined in the magazines with nasty articles being put out about her. There were so many untrue articles put out because some hero went and said, “Acha, uske bare me aab aisa likh do…” and it would be the last word. And if there would be an apology, that would be on the last line of some other issues of the magazine, it would be written ‘the story carried earlier ultimately proved not to be true’. And who will read that then? At that time the screaming headlines already made the news, right?” Raveena concluded that she was utterly displeased with the ‘viciousness’ of ’90s journalism and decided to take a break after her marriage.