Tamannaah Bhatia was roped in for the special song, Aaj Ki Raat, in the blockbuster Stree 2 – starring Shraddha Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, and others – which shattered many box office records since its release in August. In a new interview with Grazia India, the actor spoke about her refusal to be pigeonholed, and also reflected on her Stree 2 cameo. 

‘Will I be able to top what I’ve already done’

Tamannaah – who was seen grooving with Rajinikanth to the popular song Kaavaalaa from the 2023 film Jailer – said she was worried if she would be able to 'top what he's already done' with her Stree 2 song. She said, “On the heels of Kaavaalaa’s success, doing the song for Stree 2 felt very risky. I thought, ‘Will I be able to top what I’ve already done?’" 

Kaavaalaa became a global hit since its release; the upbeat song remains popular on social media. So why did Tamannaah agree to do Aaj Ki Raat? She said it was the film's directed Amar Kaushik, who gave her the confidence to say yes to the song. 

"But when Amar (Kaushik) met me and said, ‘I have this song for you, and it’s actually very crucial to the storyline,’ I just instinctively knew I had to do it," Tamannaah added.

'Wanted was for people to remember me'

In the same interview, Tamannaah said that even if she was being offered shorter roles, and they came at pivotal moments in the story, she was eager to take them on. She said she had a phase of being stereotyped as the girl-next-door, so she began choosing parts that people never expected her to play. The actor said she was never focused on the length of the part and all she ‘wanted was for people to remember her’.

One of the highlights of Stree (2018) was Nora Fatehi's dance number, Kamariya, which became a chartbuster shortly after its release. Years later, Tamannaah repeated the success with Stree 2's Aaj Ki Raat, which has over 200 million views on YouTube already.  Also starring Abhishek Banerjee and Aparshakti Khurana, Stree 2 has now collected more than ₹500 crore in India after 19 days of its release.

Tamannaah was last seen in Vedaa, which also released around Stree 2. Directed by Nikkhil Advani, it had John Abraham and Sharvari Wagh in lead roles.

Read Also: Shraddha Kapoor drops birthday post for 'pasandida purush' Shakti Kapoor; don't miss Varun Dhawan's reaction