Raveena Tandon

Raveena Tandon (born 26 October 1974) is an Indian actress, producer, and a former model. She has primarily worked in Bollywood films, though she appeared in a few Tamil, Kannada and Telugu films as well. 

Tandon made her acting debut with Patthar Ke Phool (1991), and won a Filmfare Lux New Face Award for her performance in the film. During the 90s, she was part of several commercial successes such as Mohra (1994), Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996) and Ziddi (1997), among others. Despite attaining popularity, she was not particularly recognised as an actor. This however changed in the early 2000s (decade), when she ventured into more serious roles and turned towards arthouse and parallel cinema. She got high critical acclaim for her performances in films like Aks (2001) and Satta (2003), and had the peak of her career in 2002, when she won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kalpana Lajmi's Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence (2001).

Raveena Tandon was born on 26 October 1974 in Mumbai, to filmmaker Ravi Tandon and Veena. Her name is an amalgamation of her parents' name. She attended Jamnabai Narsee School in Juhu and studied at Mithibai College. She completed her first and second years at the college. During her time as an intern, she got her first film offer from Shantanu Sheorey which she accepted. She dropped out of college and decided to pursue her film career.

Her father was a producer and director of some films in the 1970s and 1980s. She has a brother named Rajiv Tandon, who had a brief career in Bollywood films as Raaj Tandon. One cousin, Kiran Rathod is a South Indian actress. One other cousin, Reshma Singh, acted in television serials. A third cousin, Vishal Singh, is a successful actor for television serials.

She adopted two girls, Pooja and Chhaya, as a single mother in 1995 when they were 11 and 8 years old respectively.

Tandon began dating film distributor Anil Thadani during the making of her film Stumped (2003). Their engagement was announced in November 2003. She married Thadani on 22 February 2004 in Jag Mandir Palace in Udaipur, Rajasthan according to Punjabi styles. She gave birth to a baby girl called Rasha on 16 March 2005. She gave birth to her second child, a baby boy named Ranbir on 12 July 2007.