Mumbai: Actor Raveena Tandon says she has always tried to pick socially relevant stories with strong female characters and the Padma Shri award is a recognition for her body of work in cinema.
The actor, who was recently conferred with the Padma Shri , India’s fourth-highest civilian award, starred in critically-acclaimed movies like “Maatr”, “Satta”, and “Daman” in her over three-decade long career.
Tandon, whose filmography boasts of commercial entertainers as well as off-beat movies in the ’90s and early 2000s, said her endeavour has always been to associate with films that speak of women empowerment.
“I have done films which have a social relevance, and have a message of women empowerment. My choices have always been like that. Whether it is ‘Jaago’, ‘Maatr’, ‘Satta’, ‘Shool’ or ‘Daman’ . All these films have dealt with issues of women that were strong,” the actor told PTI in an interview here.
“The reaction mostly on my Twitter was: ‘this was long overdue’ because there are younger actors, who came after me, like Priyanka (Chopra) and a lot of them, who got awards much before I did. It (award) is an accumulation of my work,” she added.
Tandon most recently starred in Netflix show “Aranyak” and “KGF: Chapter 2”. The actor believes female artists have better opportunities than they had in the ’90s, an era dominated by male stars.
“There was always a struggle. According to me, the 90s was male dominated, whether it was media or movies, what the hero said, happened,” she said, adding that over the years things have changed for the better.
