SouthAsiaNews.com

Mumbai, April 30 (IANS) Former actres Raveena Tadnon is happy that her father Ravi Tandon is being honoured by Dadasaheb Phalke Academy for his excellent work as a director in films like &#39Anhonee&#39, &#39Khel Khel Mein&#39 and &#39Khuddar&#39 in the 70s.

&#39Recently, our family has gone through some trying times. We needed something good to happen to us. I was in London when I heard about dad getting the Dadasaheb for director. We&#39re delighted and surprised. We thought everyone has forgotten the man who made so many super hits in the 1970s,&#39 said Raveena who featured in the hits like &#39Mohra&#39 and &#39Dulhe Raja&#39.

Apart from Ravi Tandon, B.R. Chopra will be conferred with the prestigious Phalke Ratna award and Rajesh Khanna will receive Phalke Golden Actor Wednesday at a function in Mumbai.

Raveena says that her father never stuck to one genre.

&#39He made films in such a wide variety of genres, from the suspense thriller in &#39Anhonee&#39, to the musical-whodunit in &#39Khel Khel Mein&#39 to the family saga &#39Khuddar&#39. My dad was at one time synonymous with genre-hopping cinema. He never stuck to one specific style or cast.

&#39He worked with the whole industry from Amitabh Bachchan to Rishi Kapoor to Sanjeev Kumar.

&#39Yeah, agreed he didn&#39t launch his daughter (giggle). He preferred to launch my brother Rajiv in a film called &#39Ek Main Aur Ek Tu&#39 with Ranjita Kaur&#39s sister Rubina, which bombed. The title was taken from a chartbuster from &#39Khel Khel Mein&#39.

&#39Today, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh are identified by those songs. But who remembers my Dad? It saddens me because long before Ravi Chopra made &#39Baghban&#39 my dad made &#39Zindagi&#39 with Sanjeev Kumar and Mala Sinha, which was on the same theme of an old inseparable couple splintered by the family. My dad is very shy of honours and recognition.&#39

The actress, who had quit movies after marrying distributor Anil Thadani, says that she owes everything to her father.

&#39He brought me up as more of a son than a daughter. Whatever I have I owe it to his name in the industry. If he had not been my father. I wouldn&#39t have got an entry into films.&#39