Raveena Tandon was a leading actress in Bollywood during the 1990s and early 2000s. She also won a National Film Award and two Filmfare Awards. She recently disclosed that she was offered the AR Rahman number Chaiyya Chaiyya from Dil Se, but she declined.
For the uninitiated, Mani Ratnam’s film ‘Dil Se’ was released in the year 1998. Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala feature in the Hindi romantic thriller, while Preity Zinta makes her film debut in a supporting part.
Raveena Tandon claimed in an interview that she was approached about the song shortly after her Rakshak song 'Sheher Ki Ladki' became a smash. "It was very easy to be stereotyped back then." "How many people would know, for example, that I left a song like 'Chaiyya Chaiyya' because I had just done 'Sheher Ki Ladki,' and after that, I started getting offered only item songs," she explained.
"And then it became a norm that if Raveena is there, then there has to be a superhit song," she said, "and which I am very grateful for because to date, people also know me for my superhit songs, all of which are getting remixes, they are getting a new life, and it's all working out very well."
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Shilpa Shetty, like Raveena Tandon, declined the song when it was presented to her. Regardless, Malaika Arora performed the dance routine. Farah Khan further claimed in 2019 at the International Film Festival Of India (IFFI) in Goa that the dance number Chaiyaa Chaiyaa was first offered to Shilpa, Raveena, and many other actors, but no one took it.