In an exclusive interview with Lehren Retro, Raveena Tandon talks about her very first meeting with husband Anil Thadani, how their lovely relationship evolved and eventually both ended up marrying each other.
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00:00 You had a very romantic meeting, isn't it? Because you met on Valentine's Day.
00:05 Yeah, it's so cliched.
00:07 You met on Valentine's Day.
00:09 Such a cliched thing.
00:11 How can it get more romantic than that?
00:13 The first time you ever saw him, met him.
00:15 Yeah, and he was out with his friends on a singles night and we were out on a doing singles Valentine thing.
00:23 And I mean, something about him just struck me completely.
00:27 And I remember asking Manish, who was the guy sitting over there.
00:30 Manish Malhotra.
00:31 Yeah, Manish Malhotra. And Manish said, "How come you don't know him?"
00:33 "So you're in the same industry?" I said, "No, I don't."
00:36 And how crazy because he had distributed Pathar Ke Phool.
00:39 Can you imagine he had distributed my first film?
00:42 And he said, he remembers still that I had seen you at the premiere and I was there at the premiere.
00:48 I said, "How did I not ever meet you?"
00:50 I said, "You wasted time."
00:53 Yeah, because after that it just moved very fast.
00:56 Once you got to know him.
00:58 No, actually not.
00:59 No?
01:00 No, actually not.
01:01 Then we eventually actually met two years later.
01:05 That was the first time I only saw him.
01:07 Yeah, but nothing really happened.
01:09 I just saw him for five hours.
01:10 Manish said, "The guy was very cute. Who was he?"
01:13 He said, "Oh, he's dating someone in London and stuff."
01:15 So he was dating someone at that time.
01:17 He was already divorced.
01:19 I was out of a broken, whatever thing he was.
01:24 But he was already dating someone.
01:26 So then we met two years after that.
01:29 And that too we met for another film, Stumped.
01:32 Yes.
01:33 Which you were making.
01:34 Which I was making.
01:35 And that's when we got talking to each other.
01:37 Otherwise, the first time I saw him or ever met him in my life was there, but nothing happened then.
01:43 But once you got together for Stumped and you started talking, I think then it moved very fast.
01:47 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:48 Then it was in complete fast forward.
01:50 We met and we started talking, I think it was 4th of August.
01:54 4th of August 2003.
01:58 And 2004 February we were married.
02:02 So it was just like two months of dating and we were engaged in.
02:07 So I actually, actually went, I mean, met him for the first time, actually met him, met him was 4th of August.
02:13 2003.
02:15 You know, you mentioned that Anil had a divorce behind him and you had a broken relationship behind you.
02:22 Which everybody knows was Akshay Kumar.
02:24 But is this something that both of you sat and got it out of your way?
02:30 You discussed your respective past and did you ever?
02:34 I think everyone learns from every kind of relationship.
02:37 I mean, I think every person that you meet in your life and every person that you interact with in your life
02:44 always, there's always that vibrations that you absorb.
02:48 There's always a lot that you learn, you imbibe and you move on and you know, henceforth.
02:53 There's so many people who come into your life.
02:55 So, not that we really discussed, discussed anything.
02:59 We both knew of each other by then.
03:01 So there was never really, oh, you tell me exactly, oh, you tell me.
03:05 And Anil is a man of very few words.
03:07 So he does not, he does not and he prefers not to discuss things.
03:13 That's probably very personal to him and his past.
03:17 And I didn't want to poke.
03:19 No, neither do I.
03:20 I mean, we've never had that.
03:22 Oh, you tell me exactly how this happened.
03:23 You tell me.
03:24 We're not in so many words.
03:25 We believe in each other.
03:26 But then when you start, you know, when you're talking, it just comes out.
03:29 No, no, no, no, no, we don't discuss that much.
03:31 And in fact, we, we both very confident of each other's, you know, how would I say, faith in each other.
03:39 And probably the trust that we share, that we know.
03:43 You once mentioned that you broke off with your last, your, your person you were engaged to because of, because fidelity matters a lot to you.
03:52 Is fidelity still a, actually my question is this, that is, does fidelity continue to be a deal breaker for you?
04:00 I'm asking, I'm telling you.
04:02 Every relationship, according to me, is based on faith, love and honesty and trust.
04:08 So, these are very important things in any relationship for me.
04:12 Not be it boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, you know, it has to be between your friends.
04:18 It has to be between your brother.
04:20 It has to be between your family and me.
04:22 You have to be an honest person.
04:24 Tomorrow, if you're not an honest person, then, I mean, I don't think I would even be friends with you.
04:30 Or I would not be confiding in you because if you're not an honest person, then I'm definitely not going to confide in you.
04:36 You'll be telling the whole world.
04:38 So, trust and faith is really important in any relationship, even with your children.
04:43 Yeah, it is.
04:44 So, you do put a lot of emphasis on fidelity in your marriage?
04:49 Both for yourself and for others.
04:52 No, no, I'm not sitting and dancing the tandoor on his head every morning.
04:56 It's not like that.
04:58 Yeah.
04:59 Okay.
05:00 Everybody talks about you having the perfect life, perfect marriage.
05:04 How difficult has it been and, you know, how much has Anil contributed to this perfect marriage?
05:11 Because you have such a wonderful touch, such a wonderful understanding.
05:14 Well, it's always between two people.
05:16 It's never one-sided.
05:18 A marriage is always between two people.
05:21 The understanding, the love, the faith, the trust, the comfort is always between what is there between two people.
05:28 When I met Anil, I always, I mean, it was almost as if he and me had been brought up in the same house.
05:33 Same set of morals, same set of values.
05:36 We both really respected the fact that, you know, honesty is something and communication is something that we should always have between us.
05:44 And that's how we've even brought up our children.
05:46 Okay.
05:47 Yes, you did mention that even when it comes to a past relationship, you haven't hidden it from your children.
05:52 Your children know about it.
05:53 Yeah.
05:54 Because it's not…
05:56 Well, it's an open book for them.
05:57 If not today, tomorrow they'll read about it somewhere.
05:59 They might read something worse because you know how the 90s press was.
06:05 I mean, it was yellow journalism at its peak.
06:08 So, they had no scruples, they had no morals, they had no integrity.
06:12 Seriously.
06:13 So, tell me, is Rasha prepared for that?
06:17 Is it something you've talked about?
06:19 Well, luckily today you have the social media where you can put out your case right in front of your fans right there.
06:24 Your statement matters.
06:26 Today there's, you know, there are different mediums, different platforms where you can be on one-on-one with your fans or your friends or whoever,
06:34 where you can put out what you have.
06:36 Earlier we were at the mercy of editors whose camp they were in or whom they were buttering up or which hero was buttering them up or heroine was buttering them up.
06:45 They would only write about them.
06:47 So, and their side of the story and not even waiting to find out what the truth was.
06:52 So, it was that and what they thought, how they wanted to bring someone down, they would.
06:58 You were just at their mercy.
06:59 So, even if they had to print an apology, it would be like one minute line right at the bottom of some obscure page which nobody would even read.
07:06 And they would say, oh, but we did print an apology.
07:08 No wonder, edit, what can we do?
07:10 How was Anil when you met and he knew you had adopted two girls and you already had two children actually?
07:18 He always knew about it and he always thought it was something that was fantastic because all through those growing up years in our early marriage,
07:26 I think he was advising the girls about their bank, work, their investment, everything.
07:31 They would just be calling him directly constantly when they started working and stuff.
07:35 So, yeah, I think that was something.
07:37 So, he is also being papa to them?
07:38 Absolutely.
07:40 So, ultimately what is the tip that you would give for a) a successful marriage?
07:49 I think that would be in four short words.
07:54 Honesty, companionship, faith, trust.
07:58 And that's worth?
08:01 Above all, communication.
08:02 Okay, so five.
08:04 Five.
08:05 Five key points.
08:06 Okay.
08:07 Thank you.
08:09 [Music]
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