On February 24th this year, the world lost an icon. Legendary actress Sridevi was more than what one saw on screen. She was elegance personified, she was a devoted family-oriented person and she was beautiful as she was talented. She was also funny and she saw life and sought to live it on her own terms. She lived as she saw fit and never backed down from going for what she deserved. Rocking the screens from age 4, she even conquered hearts as we can see by the public homage that happened at her final rites. Her death comes as a heartbreak and her life serve as a beautiful chapter in history! Here are 4 most memorable and lovely as well rare moments from Sridevi’s life that will touch your heart and let a teardrop!
7. She has played a double role twice in her life
She played Anju and Manju Das in the super hit Hindi film Chaalbaaz. She also played mother and daughter in the Hindi Lamhe, a romantic film that featured her playing a young woman and a young girl.
6. She won her first and only National Award posthumously!
Her performance in Mom, her last film where she played a mother who takes revenge for the rape of her daughter. Her performance was so moving that many laud her last film to be one of her. The film earned her her first ever National Award. Alas, she wasn’t alive to receive it, hence her daughters, Jhanvi and Khushi did on her behalf.
5. She was paid as she deserved!
Growing up and transitioning into a full-time heroine from child artiste, she was only 13 years old when cast in Moondru Mudichu by K Balachander. Sridevi recollected in a chat show that her salary was Rs.5000 for the movie when Superstar Rajinikanth’s salary was only Rs.2000. She went on to explain that since Kamal Haasan was already an established star by the time they worked on the movie, he received a big amount of Rs.30,000 salary whereas she and Rajini were just starting out so they got what they are supposed to. She said:
“Rajini was very close to my mother. He was like a son. When we were all talking, Rajini would ask how he can become a big star like Kamal. My mother would say, you will definitely become like that. Rajini wanted to earn Rs.30,000,” she laughs.
4. When she was so funny during the Iconic Boat scene!
Everybody knows the Vasantha Kala song from Moondru Mudichu when Kamal falls into the water and Rajini refuses to help, singing sinister lyrics as Sridevi screams and looks on in shock. But the actual scene shooting was not so serious and was, in fact, funny and cute! Sridevi told in an interview:
“Instead of saying ‘Poitare Poitare’, I started yelling ‘Pootare Pootare’ (a colloquial usage). Kamal sir was holding on to the boat and laughing so much at this that the boat was shaking. And then the Director Balachander was yelling and asking why the boat was shaking,” she recalled good-humoredly.
3. When she appeared on Satyamave Jayate!
In 2012 LGBTQ activist Harish Iyer appeared on TV show Satyamev Jayate recounting his harrowing experience of sexual abuse as a child. Harish has even mentioned that Sridevi was the icon he would turn to those terrible times of his life and her movies are what helped him move forward. To Harish’s surprise, Aamir Khan invited Sridevi on stage as an excited and tearful Hairsh became speechless.
On the show, Sridevi said, “Harish, the mental trauma you have suffered until the age of 18 – I can’t even imagine that someone would do something like this to a child. You have shown the courage of sharing your past with us all. It will give courage to so many children who are going through this hell right now. That makes you a real hero.”
Harish went on to say, “I just have to tell you that since childhood, away from the abuse I was facing, I had built this fantasy world and it was always Sridevi, always Main Teri Dushman [song from her movie Nagina]. Maybe that’s why we call it cinema… ‘see new maa’, it’s a different kind of mother.”
After the show, Sridevi also went on to sign a letter addressed to Parliament calling for stronger laws against child sexual abuse. The actress not only gave stellar performances but touched hearts outside screens too. See the full episode here:
2. When she could easily gender blend at age 4!
It is normal for kids at age 4 or lesser to double up cutely as a boy or a girl, heck we have all had a ponytail as a baby boy or cut hair short to wear a suit as a baby girl but Sridevi had to act as the same in movies! Whether she played Murugan or the baby brother of MGR this legendary actress essayed the role so well she even won awards for it! She won the Kerala State Film Award for best child artist for her role as Sarada in the 1971 Malayalam movie Poombatta.
1. She was a spectacular mom!
Yes, she took a 15-year hiatus after getting married, do you know why? Because she was a completely devoted mom! Sridevi loved her kids Jhanvi and Khushi so much that she could not bear to be without them and wanted to give them her full attention. It is no secret that she loved being a mom so much that anyone in her friend’s circle would confirm the same. Her Instagram was full of pictures of her kids and in fact, it is known that she wanted her elder daughter to walk in her footsteps and become a big star in her own right! Check out her journey as a mom below: