Renuka Shahane says she was offered hero’s sister roles, was told her rape scene would be ‘catalyst’

Renuka Shahane opened up about getting offered several ‘hero’s sister’ roles after Hum Aapke Hain Koun. She said that she was told that her rape scene would be the turning point of the film, which would spur the hero into taking revenge.

Apart from this, Renuka said that she was also offered several ‘sister’ and ‘sister-in-law’ roles, which did not have any depth to them.

Talking about the post-Hum Aapke Hain Koun phase, Renuka told journalist Puja Talwar, “I had a lot of offers saying that ‘bohot achchi bhabhi hai (you will make for a very good sister-in-law)’, which is not ridiculous. But the ridiculous thing was ‘aap iss hero ki behen ho (you are the hero’s sister) and you are the catalyst because you get raped and the hero feels that he should take vengeance against the entire world and whoever the villains are’.”

Renuka said that she got many similar offers. “Of course, every time I have said no because I didn’t want to be that catalyst who gets raped and mauled. I am sure most of the time, even on the set, one gets mauled while doing those scenes and I couldn’t see myself in those situations at all,” she said.

Apart from films, Renuka starred in several television shows, including Circus, Imtihaan, Sailaab, Mrs Madhuri Dixit, 9 Malabar Hill and Kora Kagaz. Earlier this year, she made her directorial debut with the Netflix original film Tribhanga, starring Kajol, Tanvi Azmi and Mithila Palkar. The film, which was also written by Renuka, revolved around a dysfunctional family of three women and their unconventional life choices.

Also see: Renuka Shahane says after her parents’ divorce, kids were asked not to play with her as she came from a ‘broken family’

The Hindustan Times review called Tribhanga a ‘weird concoction’. “From the director, to the dialogue writers, to each individual actor, all seem to be operating on different frequencies throughout the film, almost never singing the same note,” it said.