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Hailed as the first pan-Indian female superstar in an era which literally offered actresses crumbs, Sridevi tamed Hindi cinema like no other. Beginning her affair with the camera when she was four, this doe-eyed beauty conquered Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada industries with performances etched in gold. Taking Hindi cinema by storm with Himmatwala in 1983, Sridevi emerged as one of the most iconic screen goddesses of India, playing characters that went on to become cultural touchstones.
A supreme artiste who had mastered all the nine rasas, her comedy was peerless, her dances legendary, her histrionics awe-inspiring and her life a study in contrast, electric on screen, strangely reticent off it. Besides reigning as queen bee for the longest spell among Hindi heroines, she also remains the only actress who was No.1 in Tamil and Telugu cinema as well.
Such was Sridevi's megastardom that she emerged as the 'hero' at the box office, towering above her male co-actors. Challenging patriarchy in Bollywood like no other, she not only exalted the status of the Hindi film heroine but also empowered a whole generation of audiences. After a hiatus of fifteen years, she shattered the rules again by becoming the only Bollywood diva to make a triumphant comeback in 2012 with the globally acclaimed English Vinglish.
If her life played out forever in the limelight, so did her sudden demise in 2018. Charting five decades of her larger-than-life magic, this book celebrates both the phenomenon and the person Sridevi was. This is her journey from child star to one of our greatest movie luminaries who forever changed the narrative of Indian cinema.
Satyarth Nayak is an author and screenwriter based in Mumbai. A former SAARC Literary award-winning correspondent with CNN-IBN, Delhi, he holds a master's in English literature from St Stephen's, New Delhi. Satyarth's debut novel, The Emperor's Riddles, released in 2014 and became a bestselling historical thriller, earning comparisons with Dan Brown. His short stories have won the British Council Award and appeared in Sudha Murty's Penguin anthology Something Happened on the Way to Heaven. Satyarth has also scripted Sony's epic show Porus, touted as India's biggest historical TV series. A regular speaker at various literature festivals, he has been named as one of the Top 51 authors to follow on Facebook. Satyarth is currently writing a fantasy web series for Amazon Prime, working on books on Indian mythology and exploring scripts in Bollywood. A self-confessed cinephile, this is his first non-fiction book.
It's sort of fitting that I am today writing a foreword for a book on Sridevi given that I grew up idolizing her. Sometimes, it is hard to believe that she is gone.
I met Sridevi for the first time around 1989 during the shooting of Pathar Ke Insan (1990). I was around thirteen then. My father (Shomu Mukerji) was the producer and director of the film, which starred Sridevi, Vinod Khanna, Jackie Shroff and Poonam Dhillon. I vividly recall that at the very first meeting she told my dad, 'You must put your daughter in the movies.' And I was like, 'No way am I going to be in the movies.' It is sheer coincidence that the same evening Yash Chopra came to meet my dad at the studio and he got him to hear a recording of Sridevi singing the song ' Chandni 0 Meri Chandni'. My first reaction was slightly childish. I wasn't really impressed by the song and I even remember saying this to my father.
However, when the movie came out, it was a completely different story. In fact, Chandni (1989) released around five months before my father's film, and I remember that I was crazy about this film. I bought the videotape and played it so many times that the recording almost wore out.
In December, that same year, Chaalbaaz (1989) released; Chandni and Chaalbaaz were my two ultimate favourites. Sadma (1983) is also an eternal favourite.
All of this happened before I made my debut with Bekhudi (1992). So you can say that she was the only film star I was actually crazy about before I joined the movies.
When I was around eighteen, I was shooting for one of my films in Film City, Mumbai, and I heard that Sridevi was also shooting in the same studio. I quickly called my dad and asked him to drive to the studio. I wanted him to take me across to meet her so that I could tell her in person how 'crazy' I was about her. And also tell her how awesome she is. It was my first 'star-struck' meeting. Selfies were still quite distant in the future. Otherwise, I would have clicked one with her back then. It is odd but my selfie with her came just a few months before she passed away. Both of us were at designer Manish Malhotra's home in Bandra and that's where that photo-op happened.
Besides that memorable selfie moment, I remember that in the course of the years I met her quite a few times. And every time, I noticed there was such a disparity; she was so different in person and on-screen. In her real life she was soft-spoken, unassuming and gentle. She possessed a canny intelligence but it was always hidden under the politest of manners; her face exuded warmth.
Coming to what she meant to me as an actor, I must say that I truly and deeply respected Sridevi. As I mentioned earlier, as a person, she had that native intelligence as far as the film industry was concerned. I do not think you can ever teach that to anyone. And as an actor, she was even more shrewd. She knew which script would work, which wouldn't. She had the pulse of the audience at all times. She knew the camera so well-how it would shoot her, which was her best angle. She actually did her own make-up and transformed herself every single time on-screen, which I find amazing. All of us need a make-up artist to make us look our best, but not Sridevi. She paid attention to the minutest of details. If you watch her movies, in any random order, you will feel like you are studying a textbook. At least that's how I always feel. From the way she used her dupatta to the way she tied her saris, everything was so perfect. Her eyes spoke volumes.
She also considered everything, right down to the last detail like when to run barefoot and when to run with her shoes on. Likewise, there are films in which she has her nail varnish on, others where she is without any. Her jewellery, her accessories, she had it all down pat. It was all so thorough. So well-planned. The beauty was she never let Sridevi the persona take over her character.
In my view, she is the first woman superstar of this country. I don't think any other leading lady could have given Amitabh Bachchan a `takkar' in Khuda Gawah (1992). Besides her, I don't think anyone else could have matched him. She was formidable in her movies.
In my head, she continues to remain a formidable force. Even at the risk of sounding like a fangirl, I must add that the memory of Sridevi will always dominate Indian cinema.
Finally, Sridevi was and will always remain special to me.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
Diva, dancing queen, comedienne par excellence-Sridevi set the box office on fire in a hero-centric Bollywood. What made her tick? What did it take to work in films across five languages, and churn out hits like 16 Vayathinile, Moondram Pirai, karthika Deepam, Himmatwala, ChaalBaaz, Nagina, Kshana Kshanam, Mr India or Chandni?
Neither fame nor success came easily to her. An outsider in Bollywood, Sridevi was mocked for her poor accent and dubbed ‘Ms Thunder Thighs’. She had to reinvent herself time and again, whether it was by making the white salwar kameez sexy or by playing double roles with flair. Then after she’d left it all to focus on being a wife and mother, she made a brilliant comeback as the protagonist of English Vinglish.
I REMEMBER WATCHING Sadma in I983. I came out of the cinema hall, utterly depressed. My throat was dry. I went home and did not feel like eating or talking to anybody for two days.
I could not have imagined before that a film could have this impact on a person. I was only twenty. At the time, I could not have conceived that I would work with Sridevi one day.
What struck me the most about Sridevi were her eyes, which were the gateways to her soul. They never betrayed a shred of emotion outside the sets. They were almost transparent, yet filled with artistry, which transformed raw emotions into a highly skilled and potent dose of ‘humanness' for the audience. I was mesmerized.
When I met her, the first words I uttered to her were, 'I didn't eat for two days after watching Sadma.' She looked at me and instantly her eyes filled up. I am sure she fathomed the honestly and sincerity in my confession. She smiled shyly and said, 'Thank you', and we started our rehearsals for English Vinglish.
In the hours, days, weeks and months that I spent in her company, I gathered that she was one of the most quiet, sensitive and vulnerable actors I have ever met, who had worked hard to elevate herself to the level of a fine artist. She understood, I believe, how to communicate with the Indian audience in an Indian way. In our ancient, traditional theatrical performances, especially in Kudiyattam and Kathakali, the actors, even when they are speaking to each other, always face the audience. They perform for the audience with utmost respect and with the intent of uplifting the spectators to a greater reality. That is the fundamental purpose of any traditional Indian performance-to lift the audience from the micro to the macro. However, most modern Indian actors, whether trained in drama schools or not, are influenced by the Western school of acting, which believes there is a fourth wall between the audience and the performer-allowing the audience to peep into actors' lives secretly. Therefore, they are, to some extent, untrue in believing that the audience does not exist. If not untrue, it is definitely a half-truth.
Sridevi, on the other hand, maybe because of her exposure to Indian classical dance, or for reasons unknown to me, always seemed to have a sacred relationship with the audience, and therefore she performed for them. Not to show off, but to bare her soul, retaining the intense truthfulness of the situations in the script and her responses to the various characters, in the moment. She was one of a kind, almost unique in possessing this skill. Despite acting for the camera, she never was false.
On the other hand, a lot of Indian actors act for the camera, but without the truthfulness of the situation or the moment; thus their acting does not impact us deep inside. Much has been said about Sridevi's comic timing. In my experience, comic timing is purely about timing. The context could be light or grave. Perfect timing in responding to a situation or a co-actor is a consequence of one's intense awareness and attentiveness to the moment. I feel that Sridevi's practice of quietude (many people have talked about how quiet she used to be on film sets) was the reason for her perfect timing. By keeping quiet on the sets, she, I believe, contained her energies from being dissipated.
Quietude also leads to deep sensitivity and was responsible for the grace she possessed. In modern actors, I am increasingly seeing a lack of grace, dignity or sensitivity of the intensity that Sridevi possessed. She was a unique actor with a uniquely Indian style of acting. I wish she was still alive. I wish she could have passed on her mastery to others. I wish English Vinglish 2 could be made.
Arguably one of the greatest actresses in the history of the Hindi film industry, Sridevi set the screens alight for over 40 years. Embracing every one of her varied characters, whether in comedy, action, romance or drama, her performances gave off an energy that made every dialogue and movement of hers unforgettable.
Very few people, however, know that it was her extensive work in the South Indian film industries that made her performances feel effortless. She learned under the tutelage of legendary actors like M.G. Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa, N.T. Rama Rao, Gemini Ganesan and Sivaji Ganesan. Her working with legends like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Chiranjeevi, assured that Sridevi was destined for greatness. This book looks at her early career as a child artist and leading lady before she became a household name in North India. Interspersed with interviews and insights from leading filmmakers and journalists who have worked with Sridevi, this book is a glimpse into the making of India's first female superstar.
Whenever I think of Sridevi, I think of a child. I wasn't much older either. But I found her innocence worthy of exploration and training. She had that quality, something the Japanese call shoshin, which means the open mind of a student willing to learn. I was a child artist myself, and we were brought up in a celluloid cage. We were parrots. We could say things, repeat things they didn't expect us to say. So that's what it was. I understood it and I passed it on to her.
This book began its journey as a conventional Sridevi T biography. That's what I set about to write. What a great book it will be, I thought. I mapped it all out. A series of interviews with her co-stars and directors in Mumbai, a few customary visits to the National Film Archives of India, revisiting all her films twice over and then, the part I was most excited about-a trip down south to explore her roots. And then, it all began to unravel.
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