Saturday 6 November 2010

Luminary: Sridevi: Portrait by Rakesh Shreshta: 90s Bollywood Icon

An incredible feature in MOVIE magazine - that went on to become the fabulous book "100 Luminaries of Indian Cinema" - Sridevi's insertion in the mag was all too short and the feature didn't cover a quarter of the contribution of Sridevi in Indian, let alone Hindi, cinema. 

On the plus side, when the book came out, the article was lengthened by 3/4ths! 

Sridevi's lack of media play has short-scripted her vast achievements in the record books. She hated and rarely gave interviews, her photo-sessions weren't that frequent, and she certainly had no long-standing friends in the film magazine world. All of which the others entertained. 

Thankfully, with frequent play of her 200+ films on cable, Sridevi's legacy will live on. If not in the digital media, on television at least for the new generation of Bollywood watchers. 

BTW Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan have both banned the media at one time or another - which certainly didn't hamper their careers or popularity. 

Sridevi didn't ban the press per se, but with as infrequent as her Q&A sessions were (and continues to be - she's said no to Simi Garewal, Karan Johar and Vir Sanghvi - and every other TV interview), there's very little heralding her cinematic achievements in media. 

I really hope this third season of Koffee with Karan, Sridevi will finally relent to appearing on the silly, but popular show. If anything, Karan will present Sridevi beautifully and as an ardent fan, not embarrass her with questions on her personal life and rumoured... well, rumours!

Let's wait and watch. 

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