Raveena Tandon reveals why she adopted her daughters ‘quietly’ to avoid gossip from tabloids: ‘Itna gandh tha’

Raveena Tandon has spoken about her adopted daughters Chaya and Pooja, whom she adopted in the 90s while unmarried.

Actor Raveena Tandon has spoken about her decision to adopt two daughter in the 90s and why she decided not to speak about them too openly. Raveena adopted daughters Pooja and Chaya when she was just 21 years old in 1995.

Raveena Tandon with her adopted daughter Chaya during her wedding.

Raveena said in a new interview that she feared how tabloids would treat the news and whether she would be accused of having kids while still being unmarried.

Speaking to RJ Siddharth Kannan, she said, "Initially, it was that era of tabloidism and yellow dirty journalism. There were these hardcore writers who were just writing nasty stuff and headlines were nasty. In those days, a scandal could be created out of anything. When I did adopt the girls, initially, I did not talk about them at all, till they passed their 10th standard and after that, they started hanging out with me on my shoots. Then, everyone started asking, ‘Who are these girls?’ And I would start telling them this is how it is."

“You were so scared that even if you say something, what will these people make it out to be? Magazine wale bol denge ki isko secretly baby ho gaya, kiska baby hai (The magazines would say that I secretly had a baby and speculate about the father). It was that era. Itna gandh tha unke minds mein (Their minds were so filthy). To avoid such stories, I just did it very quietly,” she added.

Both Pooja and Chaya are now married with kids of their own. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Raveena had spoken about how both of them are like her best friends. “My daughters are my best friends. I remember, when I got married, they were the ones who sat in the car and led me to the mandap. And now, I got the chance to walk them down the aisle. It is such a special feeling,” she had said.

Raveena is married to Anil Thadani and has two kids with him, daughter Rasha and son Ranbirvardhan.