EXCLUSIVE: Saumya Tandon on her first meeting with Kareena Kapoor: Oh my god, she's so thin

Ten years ago, today was the day when Bollywood witnessed an iconic film which will continue to live forever. The mastermind Imtiaz Ali gifted us with a film like Jab We Met, and we will always continue to be grateful. Kareena Kapoor Khan and Shahid Kapoor won our hearts with their fantastic performance, but there was somebody else too who did a fabulous job and that was the beautiful Saumya Tandon who played the character of Roop, Geet's (Kareena) younger cousin. We at Pinkvilla exclusively got in touch with Saumya and asked her a few questions about the film, her experience with Kareena and Shahid and much more. Here's an excerpt from the interview. 

JWM is completing 10 years, how do you feel?

It feels great! Jab We Met was my first project and I had no idea that this film is going to be such an iconic film. I wasn't very sure about it, but when he made me sit down and do the reading with him and I heard the story, I was totally spellbound by the script, and charmed by the dialogues and the freshness of the film and I said yes to the project. At that point I did not even think whether I should do a small role, I absolutely loved the story and came on board, no thought went into it as I just passed out of college and it was exciting for me to be a part of such a film. When I look back I feel that I did that film on a chance and I feel that in our generation if we had to pick up one film which was the best romantic film it would be Jab We Met for sure. 

Your personal favourite scene from the film?

It is so difficult to pick out one scene. There are so many and I think Kareena was at her best. If I had to pick out one film of Kareena, it would be Jab We Met, she was really really good at this. There were so many good scenes, especially the entire train journey Geet(Kareena Kapoor) and Aditya(Shahid Kapoor) have. 

Your best memory from sets?

It was my first project and I was quite conscious of Kareena and Shahid because I had seen them in my school days and they were big stars so I was quiet on sets and I remember Imtiaz told me that you should just be like your character Roop and he treated me like Roop and asked me to feel like I belonged to the city and the industry. 

How was your experience working with Shahid and Kareena on a personal front?

My first scene in the film was with Shahid and Kareena below the staircase where I catch them and ask them questions, and I was quite conscious as I told you they were big stars and there I saw Kareena for the first time, very very thin because she was preparing for Tashan and that entire zero figure phase was on, so my first reaction when I saw her was 'Oh my god, she's so thin', both Shahid and Kareena were very reserved on sets especially Kareena but once the cameras would roll she would totally transform herself. 

Because of the entire Kareena-Shahid breakup angle, people on sets had said that the atmosphere was very quiet and nobody would crack jokes or anything?

I remember during those 25 days of my shoot schedule I would get really bored. So I went to a bookstore there and I picked up one book I felt I could read so I was so engrossed with the book all the time. I was too scared to really talk to them because they weren't talking to each other and I was nobody really to ask. In the beginning on the schedule, I didn't really feel anything of such sort but probably when they were shooting Mauja Hi Mauja which was the last schedule I did feel that there was MUCH more silence than there was in the beginning of the film.