Raveena Tandon says unlike Bollywood, South filmmakers wouldn't mind her put on extra weight

One of the most popular actresses in Bollywood history is Raveena Tandon. Proving her acting prowess in Bollywood as well as South films, the actor has carved a niche for herself in the film industry for decades. The actress recently compared the Hindi and South Indian film industries, opining that the latter thrived because it maintained a connection to its culture and history while the Hindi film industry failed because it tried to "Westernize" everything.

Raveena confirmed the widely held belief that the South film industry is significantly more disciplined than the Hindi film industry when speaking to Rajshri Unplugged. She compared the two industries and claimed that Hindi filmmaking has failed to stay linked to its roots, which has hurt the industry's performance.

She said in the interview that she liked how the South's film industry maintained a strong connection to its history and culture, which led to the success of its productions. “They don’t make much of elitist movies. I think that’s what works. Whereas in Mumbai, they followed the Westernized culture. They started making DVD copies of movies in Mumbai, which were not doing good business. So, it was very necessary that we stay connected with what our masses wanted. This I’ve learned from the South Industry,” Raveena said.

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The actress also remarked that she was free to eat anything she wanted in the South because the movie producers there didn't object if she gained weight. But once she got back to Mumbai, she had to shed those extra pounds.

“When I used to come to Bombay (Mumbai), everyone used to say that I’ve put on weight," recalled Raveena. "When I used to go to the South, they used to be like why have you lost weight? Eat a lot. So I used to enjoy it a lot. I used to leave dieting and eat idli, dosa, and coconut chutney in abundance.”

Raveena Tandon's South projects

Raveena debuted in the Tamil film business in 1994 with a movie titled Sadhu after making her Telugu cinema debut in 1993 with Bangaru Bullodu. Recently, she appeared in the immensely popular Kannada movie K.G.F: Chapter 2. The film also starred Yash, Sanjay Dutt, Prakash Raj, Srinidhi Shetty, Achyuth Kumar, and Rao Ramesh, among others.

Also read: What did Raveena Tandon have to say when she was asked about Akshay Kumar’s infidelity?