78 Facts About Sridevi

Sridevi Kapoor, known mononymously as Sridevi, was an Indian actress who worked in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada language films.

Sridevi's career spanned over 50 years in a wide range of genres.

Sridevi was known for her reticent and introverted off-screen personality, but headstrong and outspoken on-screen persona, often playing strong-willed women.

In 2013, Sridevi was honoured with the Padma Shri, the country's fourth highest civilian honour.

Sridevi made her debut as a child in the 1967 Tamil film Kandhan Karunai at the age of four, and began playing lead roles as a child in M A Thirumugam's 1969 mythological Tamil film Thunaivan.

Sridevi's first starring role in Hindi cinema came with the drama film Solva Sawan, and she received wider recognition for the action film Himmatwala.

Sridevi emerged a leading Hindi film star with several successes, including Mawaali, Justice Chaudhury, Tohfa, Maqsad, Masterji, Karma, Mr India, Waqt Ki Awaz and Chandni.

Sridevi received praise for her performances in Sadma, Nagina, ChaalBaaz, Lamhe, Khuda Gawah, Gumrah, Laadla, and Judaai.

Sridevi returned to film acting with the comedy-drama English Vinglish and had her 300th and final film role in the crime thriller Mom.

Sridevi earned acclaim for both performances, and for the latter was posthumously awarded the National Film Award for Best Actress.

Sridevi was married to film producer Boney Kapoor, with whom she had two daughters, actresses Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor.

Sridevi was born as Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan on 13 August 1963 at Meenampatti village near Sivakasi of present-day Tamil Nadu, India to Ayyapan and Rajeswari.

Sridevi's father was a lawyer from Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu while her mother was from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.

Sridevi started her career as a child actor at the age of four in the Tamil movie Kandhan Karunai in 1967.

Sridevi appeared in the film Julie, where she played the younger sister to the protagonist Lakshmi.

Sridevi acted with Jayalalitha in Thirumangalyam, Kandan Karunai and Adi Parashakti.

Sridevi acted with Chiranjeevi in Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari, S P Parasuram.

Sridevi acted with Nagarjuna in Aakhari Poratam, and Govinda Govinda.

Sridevi has acted in a total of 95 Telugu language films.

In 1976, Sridevi landed her first leading role in the Tamil film Moondru Mudichu directed by K Balachander.

Sridevi followed it with a number of films with Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth.

Sridevi starred in the film's Telugu remake Padaharella Vayasu in 1978.

Sridevi acted alongside Sivaji Ganesan in Sandhippu, Kavari Maan and the Sri Lanka-filmed coproduction Pilot Premnath.

Sridevi debuted as child artist in Kannada with Bhakta Kumbara directed by Hunsur Krishnamurthy.

Sridevi acted as lead opposite Ambareesh in Priya, produced by S P Muthuraman.

In 1982, Sridevi starred in Moondram Pirai playing a woman suffering from retrograde amnesia and went on to win the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress.

Sridevi was paired with Kamal Haasan in 27 films across languages.

Sridevi made her debut as a heroine in Hindi films in Solva Sawan in 1979.

Sridevi followed with Tohfa, which was the highest-grossing Hindi film of 1984.

Sridevi featured in the Mid-Days list of 'Challenging Roles played by Bollywood Actors' describing her act in the film as "her best performance ever".

Sridevi had successful pairing with Rajesh Khanna in films such as Naya Kadam, Maqsad, Masterji and Nazrana.

Besides Nagina, 1986 saw Sridevi giving box-office hits in Subhash Ghai's multi-starrer Karma and Feroz Khan's Janbaaz.

Sridevi followed the success of Nagina by playing a goofy crime journalist in the science fiction film Mr India opposite Anil Kapoor, which was described by Rediff as "one of the most iconic films of its time".

India, Rediff stated that "Sridevi was a complete show-stealer in the film".

The dance number "Hawaa Hawaai", cited by The Times of India as "one of the unforgettable numbers of Sridevi", became a popular nickname for the actress.

Besides comedy, Sridevi featured in the video for the song "Kaate Nahin Kat Te"; Filmfare described Sridevi as "truly a goddess in a blue sari".

Box Office India states that with the success of Mr India, Sridevi "continued her domination" over her contemporaries Jaya Prada and Meenakshi Sheshadri.

The Times of India article 'Bollywood's Hit Double Roles' wrote, "Sridevi's performance had rocked the box office".

The Hindu reported that "With shades of incest, Lamhe caused more than a flutter and remained the talk of the town", while Sridevi herself admitted in an interview with Rajeev Masand that she found the subject "too bold".

In 1992, Sridevi starred in the epic drama Khuda Gawah opposite Amitabh Bachchan.

At Filmfare, the film picked up the Best Director trophy, while Sridevi earned a nomination for Best Actress.

However, Sridevi, after evaluating the stature of the role, refused the offer.

Sridevi next starred in the 1993 thriller Gumrah, opposite Sanjay Dutt.

In 1994, Sridevi teamed up with Anil Kapoor again in Laadla playing business tycoon Sheetal Jaitley.

The last major film Sridevi starred in before she took a break from the industry was the romantic drama Judaai, released in 1997.

In 1996, Sridevi married Boney Kapoor of the famed Bollywood royalty, the Kapoor family.

Sridevi appeared on Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai and as a judge in the TV show Kaboom.

Sridevi performed a medley of some of her musical numbers at the 52nd Filmfare Awards in 2007.

On 19 September 2009, Sridevi appeared on the Sony TV show 10 Ka Dum.

On 13 May 2012, Sridevi appeared on the Star Plus talk-show Satyamev Jayate.

Sridevi was nominated for several awards, including her ninth nomination for Best Actress at Filmfare.

Sridevi was next seen in her home production titled Mom, which marked her 300th film.

Sridevi said that as a mother and an artiste, she empathised with her character's rage, and found it hard to be in a normal state during the filming.

At the time of her death, Sridevi was not shooting for any upcoming films and her last on-screen appearance was in Aanand L Rai's film Zero in a cameo.

Sridevi had signed the 2019 period romantic drama Kalank, produced by Karan Johar; however, due to her demise she was replaced by Madhuri Dixit.

Sridevi was always accompanied by her mother Rajeswari or by her sister Srilatha to the film sets during shooting of her films between 1972 and 1994.

Sridevi campaigned for her father when he contested the Sivakasi constituency in 1989 assembly elections, but eventually lost in the elections.

Sridevi's father died in 1990 of heart attack, while she was shooting for Lamhe.

Sridevi's mother died in 1996, as a result of the complications suffered from an operation that she underwent in 1995 on a brain tumour at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Sridevi was extremely discreet about her privacy and rarely gave interviews or discussed her private life in them.

Boney Kapoor shared that Sridevi didn't speak to him for six months after he proposed, as he was married with two kids at the time.

Sridevi decided to spend a couple of days in Dubai to shop for her eldest daughter Janhvi's 21st birthday, after the wedding.

Sridevi went to bathe and to get dressed for dinner, while Boney waited in the living room.

Sridevi was pronounced dead on 24 February 2018 at 19:00 GMT in her hotel room where her husband had found her.

Sridevi was cremated with state honours and received a gun salute at her funeral.

Sridevi was a veteran of the film industry, whose long career included diverse roles and memorable performances.

Sridevi's funeral is estimated to have attracted the fourth-highest number of mourners, ranking below the three previous biggest funeral processions of non-political film personalities Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and Rajesh Khanna in India from the Hindi film industry.

Sridevi is regarded as one of the greatest stars of Indian cinema.

In 2012, Sridevi was placed at No 2 by NDTV in the listing of "The most popular Bollywood actresses of all time".

Sridevi featured in Box Office India's Top Actresses list from 1983 to 1993.

An epitaph in Firstpost pointed out that Sridevi had been sufficiently important as an actor to be able to refuse parts in movies, and The News Minute called her "a pathbreaker in many ways".

Sridevi worked at Lakme Fashion Week again in 2010, and at Delhi Couture Week 2012, showing clothes designed by Sabyasachi Mukherjee.

Sridevi has appeared on the cover of several fashion magazines.

In 2013, Sridevi appeared on the cover of Vogue, which was mentioned in Hindustan Times, The Times of India, and India Today.

Sridevi's performances, acting style and technique have been influential and have inspired numerous actresses including Divya Bharti, Juhi Chawla, Karisma Kapoor, Kajol, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Katrina Kaif, Vidya Balan, Anushka Shetty, Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt, and Soumitrisha Kundu, who have cited her as an inspiration.

Sridevi is one of the very few actors who was praised by her veterans, peers and the next generation actors alike.

Sridevi was included in 2018 In Memoriam section during the 90th Academy Awards ceremony.

The statue is a replica of Sridevi's look in the iconic song, "Hawaa Hawaai" from Mr India.