If Govinda thinks he got a raw deal in Mani Ratnam’s Raavan then he can seek solace in the savage butchering of Tejaswini Kolhapuri’s role.

Padmini Kolhapur’s pretty baby sister was signed on for a prominent role as Ravi Kissan’s wife. She spent 2 ½ gruelling months away from home and husband (filmmaker-actor Pankaj Saraswat) in the jungles shooting for Raavan.

The end-result…one passing shot lasting no more than 5 seconds in a wedding song.

Surely this must rank as the most abbreviated role in the history of Hindi commercial cinema!

One of Tejaswini’s co-stars in Raavan says, “At least Tejaswini is visible in one shot in Raavan. Poor Sadashiv Amrapurkar, at his age he was on location in the jungles for 90 days. Finally he isn’t in the film for even a shot. And what about poor Sachin Khedekar who is there for one shot as Abhishek’s father? He played Aishwarya’s father in Guru and had his role chopped off because Mani wanted to focus on the Abhishek-Aishwarya story.”

Incidentally Madhavan and Vidya Balan had their roles severely chopped off in Guru too.

Surprisingly Tejaswini doesn’t try to dodge the savage editing of her part with sugar-coated words.

When asked about her blink-and-miss role she said, “Mani Sir and his entire team knew what my role was. I shot for a good 75 days…The role in the film is what you saw. Nevertheless it was a treat working with a director par excellence like Mani Ratnam. Anyone would give a tooth and nail to work with him. All I had to suffer was some minor bruises and hardships. It’s crazy to say this after what I’ve gone through. But I’d love to work with him again.”

Tejaswini has been unlucky in career from the start. Her first film as leading lady Anurag Kashyap’s Paanch never got released.

But she’s hopeful about the future. “I’ve finished Happi with Pankaj Kapoorji which Bhavna Talwar has directed .I’ve also done a short film Salt and Pepper about the farmers’ suicides directed by Mohinder Pratap Singh and Shashank Ghosh’s segment in the Mumbai short-films Mumbai Cutting. Ironically in Shashank’s film I play an actress trying to find a foothold in the film industry. I’m just keeping myself active, doing stage plays until my time arrives.

-Subhash K Jha/ Sampurn Wire