Raveena Tandon talking about 'Aks'

When debutant director Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra came to Raveena Tandon with his supernatural thriller Aks she was really excited because for the first time, she was being offered a role with negative shades. 

"I'd already made the transition to intense dramatic roles like Daman which won me the National Award for Best Actress. And I shot simultaneously for Shool and Aks, both featuring Manoj (Bajpai), but while the former was a hardhitting crime drama with me as the simple, sari-clad wife, Aks was a performance oriented film with a me in an ultra-glam role. I swept up all the popular awards that year and proved that you didn't need to indulge in teary-eyed histrionics to be taken seriously as an actor," Raveena reminisces 14 years later. 

The challenge was a confrontation scene with Amitabh Bachchan with a tinge of sensuality. She'd known the actor since she was two. He was Amit uncle to her and, she admits, she'd invariably say something silly or behave awkwardly in his presence. That, she realised, couldn't happen when they faced the camera together so when she arrived on the sets she started greeting her co-actor politely but shortly and then retiring into the farthest corner with a book. 

"I could see that Amit uncle was surprised, maybe even peeved, at my behaviour but that was the only way I could look him straight in the eye as he loomed large in front of me and give him back a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye despite all the palpitations," she laughs, adding that once they were done with those scenes she explained her erratic behaviour to Bachchan. "After that we went to the Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan sets where I was playing his sister and we had a rollicking time." 

She has a word of praise for the director who helped her through these trying times. "Whenever I was confused about a scene, I'd look up and Mehra would nod reassuringly, boosting my confidence," she recalls. 

She had three great songs in the film, including the Shubha Mudgal track, Raat aati hai, which she remembers listening to in the car, the doors open and the stereo blasting the music. "By the time it ended I had tears streaming down my face because it had so much soul and depth. Music really stirs me up," she asserts. 

She filmed these songs, back-to-back, at Filmistan studio because choreographer Raju Sundaram had to fly back to Chennai and getting his knee-breaking moves right left her black and blue. "I was doing three shifts on three sets in the same studio. From 7 am to 2 pm I would shoot a song for the Manoj-Tabu starrer, Ghaath. The film had been offered to me but I couldn't do it because of date clashes so since I had already been paid, the makers asked me to do a special appearance song," informs Raveena. 

From 2 pm to 7 pm she was matching steps with Govinda for a song in Ankhiyon Se Goli Maare, then from 7 pm to 5 am, she would move to Aks. "Cory Walia would request me to lie down on the sofa. I would instantly nod off and he would do my make-up while I slept. That was the only time I slept during those four days," she sighs, then brightens up to point out that she was rewarded with a shelf full of awards which today reflect her perseverance and professionalism.