Death of a Superstar !

She was “Hawa Hawai” to some and “Chandni” to many , she was worshipped like an goddess down south and applauded as the first female superstar in Bollywood. She ‘was’ SRIDEVI ! 

Born in an humble family background she started acting in films at the age of 4 often playing a child god in mythological movies in Tamil and Telugu. She turned a leading lady at 13 acting opposite stars like Rajinikanth and Kamal Hasan. Within no time she was the most sought after heroine in south cinema. Her first brush with Bollywood is the forgettable disaster Solva Sawan (1979), not one to be deterred by failure she marched ahead in an industry where even the language was unknown to her. With a bravura performance in Sadma (1983) and back to back hits like Himmatwala (1983) and Justice Chaudhry (1983) she cemented her position in Bollywood. 

At that point she had many factors against her including her poor diction and inability to speak in Hindi, strong competition from senior Heroines like Rekha and Hema Malini and direct rivalry with fellow southern peers Jaya Prada and Meenakshi. Sridevi utilised all her weaknesses and converted them into major strengths, her Tohfa (1984) turned out to be the biggest hit of that year further pushing her to the number one slot. Thereafter there was no looking back for Sridevi whose expressive big eyes, penchant for dancing and acting histrionics impressed the Bollywood audience. She continued delivering hits like Karma (1986), Aakhri Rastaa (1986), Mr India (1987), Chandni (1989) and Chalbaaz (1989). From 1984-89 she remained the Numner one heroine with no close competitor and upstaged all her contemporaries. 

In the 90’s Sridevi survived the meteoric rise of Madhuri Dixit and started being selective in her choice of films which included the delightful Lamhe (1991) which earned her the Filmfare Award. She had mediocre hits like Khuda Gawah (1992), Gumrah (1993) and Laadla (1994) but Lady Dixit had already dethroned her from the Number one position. Sridevi was going through a terrible phase personally having lost both her parents and professionally as well where her movies were flopping like Army (1996) and Kaun Sachcha Kaun Jhootha (1996), it was one of her last roles as a leading lady in Judaai (1997) that not only brought her commercial success but also the much needed audience appreciation. 

In 1997 Sridevi shocked the media and the entire nation when she tied the knot with the much married Boney Kapoor that invited the wrath of his mother in law the feisty and powerful Satti Shourie who apparently punched a pregnant Sri in her stomach during a party at an Five star Hotel. Sri was labelled a home breaker ! The next fifteen years She remained away from the spotlight raising her two girls Jahnvi (b.1997) and Khushi (b.2000) and looking after the family. She was occasionally in the news for all the wrong reasons like her much publicised cosmetic surgeries or her ‘Second Wife’ tag related gossip. 

She returned to the silver screen and delivered two immensely memorable and significant performances in films English Vinglish (2012) and Mom (2017) playing her age and enacting the roles efficiently. While attending a relatives wedding in Dubai she passed away in her Hotel room (February 2018) after drowning accidentally in a bathtub. Several speculations and assumptions were brought forward by the TRP crazy media even raising fingers at her lifestyle. But the fact is she is gone forever after entertaining nearly three generations of the audience with her highly remarkable acting and dancing in over 280 movies in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. Along with the Death of a Superstar the viewers also witnessed Death of The Indian media.