Salman stands by friends, says Raveena

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">MUMBAI: Raveena''s been out of circulation for a while, what with the hassles of production telling on her time. But the actress now has two great films lined up for release. While Madhur Bhandarkar''s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Satta</span> is all ready to release on the 7th of February, Ravs'' home production <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Stumped</span> too will release two weeks later on the 21st.<br />Indeed, there''s a lot of speculation about Raveena''s role as a producer. But the National Award winning actress would rather move on with the job than belie any doubts. In fact, she''s producing yet another film <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Pehchaan. </span> We caught up with her just after the music release of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Stumped.</span><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Did the success of the cricket based film </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Lagaan</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""> have anything to do with your decision to make </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Stumped</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">?</span><br />Not at all. It''s (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Stumped</span>) actually a very good film and it''s not based on cricket. We''re talking about war and how futile war is. And it shows how much the soldiers'' loss of life means to us. Cricket is a topic in the film, but <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Stumped</span> is centered around this army major and his wife and their life.<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Distributors are usually wary of a film without a big star cast. Although you are known as a fabulous actress, did that have anything to do with your decision to rope in Salman for a special appearance?</span><br />No. Actually our film is already sold. So the Salman song is like an added attraction. That has nothing to do with the selling of the film, both overseas and India.<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">How did the Salman Khan special appearance come about? Did he agree to it immediately?</span><br />It''s just that my very first film <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Patthar Ke Phool</span> was with Salman and I thought it would be a good thing if he was also a part of my first production release. And he agreed at once to do the film. He didn''t even want to hear the song. So far I''ve only heard that Salman stands by his friends, but now he''s proved it too.<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">We hear it is a naughty song?</span><br />Naughty, yes, but it doesn''t have any double meanings or anything. On the contrary it is a song that talks about life and death... actually it''s got this carefree attitude. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">You have two films releasing in the gap of two weeks. Do you think that''s good or bad?</span><br />Yes, actually <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Satta</span> was supposed to release on the 31st of January, but it got pushed back to the 7th of February, which incidentally happened to be the day I planned to release <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Stumped</span> as well. So I decided to release <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Stumped </span>two weeks later on the 21st of February.<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Any particular reason why you wanted </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Satta</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""> to release first?</span><br />(Laughs.) No particular reason... I guess the actress in me took precedence over the producer.</div> </div>