Saumya Tandon on 10 years of Jab We Met: People mobbed me thinking I was really Kareena’s sister

Actor Saumya Tandon opens up on her first brush with fame on the sets of Jab We Met, almost refusing the film, and how she got to know about Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor’s break-up.

Actor Saumya Tandon has emerged as one the best known names on television, but the one role which really gave her a shot at fame was playing Kareena Kapoor Khan’s younger sister Roop in the 2007 iconic film Jab We Met. She recalls how she initially didn’t even want to take up the role. “When I was first told about the role, I was a bit apprehensive before taking it up, because it was so small. But when Imtiaz Ali narrated the script, and I read the dialogues as Geet with him, I fell in love with the script. I originally met Imtiaz for a film called Rockstar, where I would play a Kashmiri girl [and be cast] opposite John Abraham. But that somehow didn’t happen,” says Saumya.

Saumya Tandon played the role of Kareena Kapoor Khan’s sister in Jab We Met (2007)

Saumya with Aditya (played by Shahid Kapoor) and Geet (played by Kareena Kapoor Khan) in a still from the film

Being new to the whole shooting process, Saumya recalls her first brush with fame. “We were shooting the song Nagada Nagada in Nabha in this huge haveli we had shot the whole Punjab schedule in. Kareena and Shahid, of course, had their own bodyguards, but as I was a newcomer, I was sitting on a jhula, swinging my legs, since I knew no one would know me. The next thing I know, these 30-35 strong, tall men have surrounded me, asking for photographs. Taken aback, the production people came to my rescue, and then one of the bodyguards too protected me. The reason for this was that everyone there (there were no junior artists except the dancers) took me to be Kareena’s real younger sister, since we had the same eye colour and complexion! They thought I was getting launched with the film”, laughs Saumya.

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Jab We Met was Shahid-Kareena’s last film as a couple together. The two broke up after the film released. Asked if she too got any such vibes from the two, Saumya confesses, “I was so naive, that I didn’t indulge in any such gossips on set. But yes, towards the end of the last schedule, when the shooting for Mauja Hi Mauja took place, I could see the two weren’t talking to each other. I got to know later that they had broken up.”

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