Sridevi is considered to be one of the first Indian female Cinema Superstar and an all time favorite, who is said to have ruled Bollywood for more than a decade as the Number One actress. She is known for her acting prowess and also has acted in many regional language movies, where she won praise and accolade from her fans. Such is her personality and acting skills that producers and directors were always ready to make her part of their next movie assignment.
Personal Life
Born to a Tamil family on 13th August, 1963, Sridevi was said to have talent for acting from her childhood days. She was inspired by her father Ayyapan, a lawyer and mother Rajeswari to pursue the art of acting. She married the famous film producer and the elder brother of well known actor Anil Kapoor in the year 1996. After marriage, she left acting and gave birth to two daughters.
Professional Life
Sridevi started her acting career at the age of 4 for a Tamil devotional movie, Thunaivan and continued on acting in several South Indian regional movies. However, she got her first breakthrough in a Tamil movie named ’16 vayathinile’ at a tender age of 13 as the leading actress, opposite Rajnikanth and Kamalahasan. By the age of 17, she was considered to be veteran in the film industry. She did her first Bollywood movie ‘Julie’ at the age of 12. She then did several award winning movies like Sigappu Rojakkal, Moondram Pirai, etc. Sridevi’s first success in Bollywood came with Sadma, followed by Nagina, Chandni, Chalbaaz, Lahme, etc. The mind blowing performances in these movies had established her as the undisputed leading actress in Bollywood. She was placed on the cover of Filmfare, a leading Indian movie magazine, which stated her as the No. 1 Bollywood actress.
Achievements
Sridevi acting prowess has been not only liked and loved by the mass, but also by critics alike. She won four of Filmfare’s ‘Best Actress Awards’ of which two was for Hindi, one for Telugu and one for Tamil. Her comeback after a long hiatus with the Hindi movie ‘English Vinglish’ was critically acclaimed and won laurels from all. ‘Variety’, the weekly American entertainment put up a review of the movie stating that Sridevi was charming disarmingly, recalling Audrey Hepburn. Meanwhile, the Canadian media called her as ‘Indian Meryl Steep’.
Unlike other actress, Sridevi did not have to undergo much struggle to get stardom. With only a few movies, she could confine her foothold in the industry. The main reason for her immense popularity is due to her mass appeal, witting dialogue throwing and superb acting. She is very natural in her acting and does not overact. She tends to get into the character that she is portraying in the movie, thus presenting genuinity in the acting. She has acted with almost all the leading Bollywood male personalities including Jeetendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikant, Kamal Hasan, Sunny Deol, etc. to name a few. She is very versatile in her acting and could easily get into the characters, much to the delight of her directors. She is rather the darling of directors and producers who could at any point of time bet their money on her movies.
Even after coming from a long retirement, Sridevi has not forgotten an inch of her acting skills, which was very evident from the latest comeback movie ‘English Vinglish’. Almost all her films were box office hits and earned the producer huge amount of money. There were various types of character roles played by her during her long stint in acting. She played the role of a lover, sister, mother, wife and student and portrayed her character in an entertaining manner. Apart from her impeccable acting, she was also known for her penchant for dancing. Due to her efforts, she was awarded several Filmfare, National and State Awards. Most of her songs are still a fascination among the younger generation and are played at occasions and parties.Her huge hit was with the movie ‘Himmatwala’, which was a gross earner and placed her as a super-star in Bollywood and with ‘Mr. India’, she cemented her position as the No. 1 star of Bollywood. With women centric movies like ‘Nagina’, ‘Chandni’, she earned huge positive reviews from both India and abroad. With Sridevi having made a comeback to acting in Bollywood movies, the heroines of the current generation have plenty of challenges ahead of them. She could easily don traditional as well as modern roles with ease and comfort.
Even during her retirement, she appeared in several television serials like ‘Malini Iyer’ and also was a judge in ‘Kaboom’. She is one of the Directors of the AAFT. She has also walked on ramps for famous designers such as Queenie Dhody, Priya Chinttan and Neeta Lulla.