Sridevi: The First Female Superstar of Indian Cinema, Whose Legacy Endures Beyond the Awards She Was Denied

Sridevi was a supernova who blazed the big screen brightly—and was as frequently overlooked by the establishment! From her beginnings as a child artist in the late 1960s to her reign as the undisputed pan-Indian superstar of the 1980s and early 1990s, and her triumphant comeback in the 2010s, Sridevi commanded the screen with a rare alchemy of comic timing, dramatic intensity, and effortless glamour. 

As most know, she worked across Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada cinema, becoming one of the most versatile and bankable actresses of her era.

As her fans have long argued, she was “robbed” of several major accolades, particularly in the Hindi film industry, where commercial success did not always translate into critical trophies. Yet her verified record of wins and honors remains formidable.

Here is a comprehensive, fact-checked compilation of her major awards and accolades.

Sridevi’s Major Awards

Year	Award	Category	Film / Recognition
1970	Kerala State Film Award	Best Child Artist	Poombatta
1981	Filmfare Awards South	Best Actress (Tamil)	Meendum Kokila
1982	Tamil Nadu State Film Award	Best Actress	Moondram Pirai
1990	Filmfare Award	Best Actress	Chaalbaaz
1991	Filmfare Awards South	Best Actress (Telugu)	Kshana Kshanam
1991	Nandi Award	Best Actress	Kshana Kshanam
1992	Filmfare Award	Best Actress	Lamhe
2012	Stardust Awards	Best Actress in a Drama	English Vinglish
2013	Padma Shri	Civilian Honour	Contribution to Indian Cinema
2013	Jagran Film Festival	Best Actress	English Vinglish
2018	National Film Award	Best Actress	Mom (posthumous)

Posthumous Awards

2019: Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award (posthumous) 

2025: Filmfare Cine Icon Award (accepted by Boney Kapoor) 

Additional Notable Nominations & Honours 

Filmfare nominations for 

1. Sadma (1984), 
2. Chandni (1990), 
3. Khuda Gawah (1993), 
4. Gumrah (1994), 
5. Laadla (1995), 
6. Judaai (1998), 

.... plus multiple Lifetime Achievement recognitions.

In Her Own Words

“I’m very excited when I win an award for a Telugu or Tamil film... This is my fourth Filmfare award after the Tamil film Meendum Kokila in ’81, Chaalbaaz in ’89 and Lamhe in ’91.” 

--Sridevi to Filmfare magazine (1993)

Sridevi with Deepika Padukone, Shahrukh Khan, Sharmila Tagore and Madhuri Dixit on stage

Sridevi with Deepika Padukone, Shahrukh Khan, Sharmila Tagore and Madhuri Dixit on stage

For the utterly pointless but PR exercise of the Lux Golden Rose Awards. 

Sridevi's smile during Lamhe's multiple Filmfare Award wins! 13 Nominations, when it deserved 14 wins!

Best Actress win for Sridevi; Lamhe

For the n'th time, let me state, Lamhe was not a flop. It just wasn't as big a hit as Chandni and got a little trounced by a film that no one saw as a threat; the (rather mediocre to be fair) hit that was Phool aur Kaante. Made on a budget of ₹2cr, Lamhe made ₹3cr. A more than healthy profit. Trouble is of course, it was being compared to the runaway success of Chandni, made at a modest ₹2.8 crore, which had the Box office turnover of a whopping ₹17.2 crore!

Yash Chopra famously went into a mild depression of sorts when the film's box-office reports were initially trickling in. The smoke signals were ominous. Dilip Kumar famously went to visit him often to break the spell. He was so glum, Chopra didn't even attend Filmfare awards for the first time in the show's history, despite the film having a record number of 13 nominations. And possibly for the last time in Filmfare history, a tepid box-office film walked away with all 5 of the major awards, while the bigger hits were left without trophies. Lamhe even went on to win Best Film, Actress, Dialogue, Story and Comedian. In our humble opine; it should have won for Best Choreography (Saroj Khan's most eclectic work), Best Supporting Actress (Waheeda Rehman should just keep winning awards for merely existing - we are blessed to be around in her time), Best Costume (which was not yet a category in Filmfare - but thankfully Neeta Lulla was recognised by the National Awards), Best Music (still get chills when I hear the intro of wind sounds and music in Morni), Best Playback singer (Hariharan - that velvet versatile voice), they should have given Lataji a special award (hell, if they can do that was Hum Aapke Hain Kaun...!), Best Cinematography (how gorgeous and contrasting did London and Rajasthan look?!), and controversially, as Anil Kapoor's most understated performance, he should have won for Lamhe (and not the pandering, over-the-top Beta--that was Madhuri's win and film all the way tbh).  

Was glorious to watch the Filmfare show again to see stars when they were mysterious, untouchable superstars, not these dime-a-dozen on Instagram wannabes. Zoya Akthar and Farhan Akhtar--oh those OG nepo babies!-- looked like enthusiastic high school kids when they picked up the award for writer Honey Irani, who was a no-show at the event despite writing Lamhe so beautifully and so sensitively. One wrong note or pitch and it could have gone horribly wrong, but it didn't. Despite what some of the audience said back then... 

Today, we look back at Lamhe as a classic. In the 90s, it was the biggest hit on Laserdisc (remember those?!), which ushered in the era of the DVD. I remember paying a FORTUNE for my Lamhe laser; $100. Which was big money back then, as it is now. 

Sridevi's bouquet of awards for her swansong Mom

Sridevi's bouquet of awards for her swansong Mom. Sridevi's reign over Indian film history was just entering another chapter and we were discovering new pages in her oeuvre. Still providing exciting performances, mesmerising audiences and critics alike, her infinite spools of talent were still being revealed to the world... when, she hit exit left. 

It's our loss entirely. 

How it started, how it ended: Kerala was the first to recognise Sridevi's infinite gifts

Now and then: How it started, how it ended: Kerala was the first to recognise Sridevi's infinite gifts 

Throwback to Dec 2017: Sridevi's steady stream of Awards: Best Actress

Throwback to Dec 2017: Sridevi's steady stream of Awards 

While others of her ilk were struggling to find relevance, Sridevi was collecting trophies and honours, most of her films  were box-office successes (we're all trying to forget Puli - even though the movie made over 100 crore!) and she was still negotiating terms with top film makers (and rejecting others, cough cough, Rajamouli!) and Sridevi was swanning gracefully into her second act with confidence, elegance and savvy. 

The critics had grown accustomed to her level of brilliance and forfeited the legend her due credits on more than one occasion. The fact the governing body only recognised her vast contribution to Indian cinema posthumously (I mean, she should have won a National Award long ago, Padma Shree even before) speaks a lot about taking the presence of Sridevi for granted, for only in her absence did the largess of honours full suit. 

Well, at least her fans recognised her brilliance early on - and stayed loyal till the end. Well, till now. 

TBT: Actress Reema Khan meets Sridevi and Aishwarya Rai backstage of Lux Zee Cine Awards 2005

TBT: Actress Reema Khan with Aishwarya Rai and Sridevi backstage at the Zee Cine Awards 2005.

Sridevi and her awards: A montage of images from the net

These are but some of the awards Sridevi won in her lifetime. 

See the entire comprehensive list here in the archives.
 

Six Awards for Sridevi's Swansong: Mom

For her swansong, Mom, Sridevi collected a record number of awards, some during her lifetime, others posthumously. The film, the music, the crew won others too, but Sridevi alone  in total won six major awards: 

65th National Film Award: Best Actress

Zee Cine Awards: Best Actress/Critics Best Actress

IIFA Awards: Best Actress 

GQ Awards: Excellence in Acting 

Bollywood Film Journalists Award: Best Actress 

Masala Magazine Award: Outstanding Performance of the Year 

Bollywood film Mom in China

Right: In early 2018, Mom was released in China and was a surprise hit, surpassing box-office expectation. After the success of English Vinglish in the region, an audience familiar with Sridevi's body of work turned up en masse to watch the thespian in action again. And they were suitably impressed. 

Sridevi and Anil Kapoor in Star & Style Awards Issue

Sridevi and Anil Kapoor winning awards for the now defunct Star & Style magazine. Way back in the 1980s, film magazines were doing their own award shows and functions. There are now Stardust awards, Filmfare awards, Zee awards (remember there was a Z magazine for a few years?!) on occasion even Cine Blitz awards! Filmfare has lasted the longest but like all award-shows in India, is in desperate need for a revamp, accountability, transparency and legitimacy.

Anyhoo, this is the team of Mr India winning all the major awards for Star and Style in early 1988 with a record clean sweep; Best Actress Sridevi, Best Actor Anil Kapoor, best film Boney Kapoor and Best Director Shekhar Kapur.

There were no surprises as Mr India was the (second-) biggest hit of 1987 (Hukumat was a bigger hit and some say even Khudgarz was; but neither film is as well remembered as Mr.India).

Rare pic of Sunita Kapoor and Anil Kapoor with Sridevi at the party.

Like the Golden Globes they had a separate award system for television and film.

March 11-24, 1988 cover:

Dharmendra with Sridevi

click to enlarge

Sridevi looking so pretty at an awards function. Dharmendra looks on.

Rotary Awards Night with Sridevi and Dharmendra, Hyderabad. 
30 6 1990:

She was the Won: Sridevi won five major awards days before she...

The tragedy is, her story wasn't done. Sridevi was still achieving, bettering herself, winning awards, on a spree... when her life was so rudely interrupted. She was collecting awards and accolades for performances till the very end. Sigh...

The last year of Indian actress Sridevi's abridged life was studded with trophies, awards and accolades. 

Hope she knew not only was she loved, she was admired. 

Laudable performances, laughable Indian Award Ceremonies: Sridevi's losses were shocking

A few years ago we posted this gorgeous feature regarding Filmfare's un-fair (and plain delusional) practices of giving awards to sponsor-and-ratings-friendly stars versus honouring actors with meritorious performances. 

We found this image online and had to re-post. So funny but so true. Sridevi deserved awards for the above as well as honours of Mr India and Nagina but somehow those trinkets seemed to elude her. Now that nearly all Indian award ceremonies have turned into pure farce - Golmaal Best Film? Dhoom 2 performances awarded?! wtf? - we rest in solace that future generations will forever ponder how Sri didn't win more awards after viewing these or any of her incredible nearly 300 films!

Oh Sri... gone too soon.

Sridevi at the Lux Golden Rose Awards: TBT

Sridevi honoured over the years - and now Janhvi follows suit.

Film...fair?

Sridevi and her awards

Sridevi has been nominated for 10 Best Actress Filmfare Awards, she took home six. Namely for  Meendum Kokila, Kshana Kshanam, Chaalbaaz, Lamhe and, debatable as it may be... for Mr India and Nagina.

Sridevi at Filmfare 2013

If you remember back in 2013 (when Sridevi did not pick up for English Vinglish), in the middle of the show Saif Ali Khan and Shahrukh Khan went down to give her a trophy for the years Filmfare was not held - but had it been, Sridevi would have picked up the awards in 1986 and 1987. In theory. Still a bit iffy about the whole biz…

All bow to 'the' Sridevi: Jitesh Pillai, Varun Dhawan pay obeisance to Devi, Sridevi

Sridevi with editor of Filmfare, Jitesh Pillai

Varun Dhawan with Sridevi

TBT: Sridevi and Anil Kapoor win awards for Mr.India: Star & Style Awards

TBT: Sridevi and Anil Kapoor collect awards for the film Mr India. Circa 1988. The year there was no Filmfare award ceremony but Star & Style tried to recreate it by giving away trophies to the biggest stars of that year.

The Trophy Life: Sridevi winning awards throughout her entire career

Sridevi then, Sridevi now. Winning awards back then, collecting them now. And looking better than ever. Gorgeous Sridevi with her Best Actress Award for Lamhe (1992) and a recent one for her contribution to cinema.

Award Winning Indian Actress: Sridevi picks up Gr8 Women Awards Trophy for her contribution to cinema

One of many trophies in Sridevi's collection - the Indian actress picked up honours at the 'GR8! Women Awards 2014' held in Hyderabad. She won the award for Excellence In Versatility.