TBT: Sridevi live on stage in Punjab: 1993

 

Does anyone have the full show? Sridevi looks sooooo gorgeous. 

Sridevi, 30, in Punjab, performing live on stage. 

Rare pic: Rishi Kapoor with Sridevi in Banjaran

Yet another title role AND a double-role for Sridevi. 

Harmesh Malhotra's appreciation for his leading lady was famously in print, and he bet the house on Sri offering her a film every year from the days of Nagina. Some she accepted, others she rejected. But the relationship of mentor and muse remained intact. She spoke highly of the producer/director and vice versa. 

Rare pic: Rishi Kapoor with Sridevi in Banjaran 

Sridevi with her mother Rajeshwari and sister Sreelatha

 

Well, technically its Sreedevi not Sridevi (have you seen her autograph?!) but film credits - including Lamhe, Sadma etc. spell it out as Sridevi so... 

This pull quote from Cine Blitz;

Sridevi, "Even as a child, I was never one amongst many because my parents were never desperate for me to be in films."

Collecting all the quotes regarding Sridevi's youth, her days as a child artist and her unwavering reach to the top. There is a false narrative floating online that suggests that Sridevi was forced into working in films, this is blatantly not true. Sridevi has repeatedly stated it was she who wanted to act. 

MOVIE: January 1988: Sridevi: One Woman Industry

In January of 1988, MOVIE magazine looked back at the year that was 1987 and, yet again, Sridevi was on top of the box-office pile. With 9 film releases that year (in Telugu and Hindi films), Sridevi was playing the long game of working non-stop, having multiple film releases and hedging her bets that one or the other was going to work. The quality... suffered. She was a victim of her own success. And to be fair, the 80s was not kind to anyone. 

As y'all know, I, and really most Bollywood watchers, are not huge fans of 1980s Hindi cinema - it certainly wasn't the golden era, more of a faux bronze patina age. Soooooo many bad films, music,  magazines, pictures, outfits, styling, wigs... Obviously, with a few notable exceptions. 

Movie Title	Language	Co-Stars	Box Office Verdict
Mr. India	Hindi	Anil Kapoor, Amrish Puri	Blockbuster
Aulad	Hindi	Jeetendra, Jaya Prada	Hit
Watan Ke Rakhwale	Hindi	Dharmendra, Mithun Chakraborty	Hit
Nazrana	Hindi	Rajesh Khanna, Smita Patil	Above Average / Hit
Jawab Hum Denge	Hindi	Jackie Shroff, Shatrughan Sinha	Average
Majaal	Hindi	Jeetendra, Jaya Prada	Average
Himmat Aur Mehanat	Hindi	Jeetendra, Poonam Dhillon	Flop
Maa Voori Magadu	Telugu	Krishna	Flop
Makutamleni Maharaju	Telugu	Krishna	Flop

Making another Sridevi... Bhanupriya, Jaya Prada to Radha: Looking for a Sridevi replacement

When Sridevi started getting to be expensive, overbooked and out of station, film producers and co-stars thought to find a replacement. They made a star out of one Telugu newcomer, why not try doing it again.? So they tried with Bhanupriya (who originally was heavily styled like Sridevi was - down to her monochrome saris and glittering amrapali costumes), Radha and even Jaya Prada started doing the Sridevi-Bollywood-style dancing - as opposed to her classically trained ones. 

None could recreate the performance - be it at the box-office or acting! Bhanupriya retreated and appeared in amazing Tamil and Telugu films. Jaya Prada made her own niche, Radha came and went and barely anyone noticed in the North. She's made a resurgence on social media but can her contribution to Indian cinema be compared to Sridevi?! I'm not sure. 

Sridevi was an original - none like her in the world, let alone in India. How a child artist transitioned to a teenage sensation, to a pan-Indian leading lady to legend by the time she was 30... no one in the world has had a career or trajectory like Sridevi. She was a unique phenomenon} even her contemporaries, competitors, precursors and successors have to agree, there was no one like Sridevi ever before, ever again.

 

Sridevi and Jaya Prada : True rivals

From the moment Sridevi stepped into Himmatwala, a Hindi remake of a Jaya Prada film, it was on. The most heated rivalry between two Telugu actresses. 

When Sridevi lowered his staggering remuneration to work in Jaag Utha Insan with Jaya Prada's mentor K Vishwanath (the legendary filmmaker), the damage was beyond repair, Jaya Prada was working in Sharaabi - which turned out to be a blockbuster while Jaag Utha Insan flopped at the box-office. It was a constant sport of upmanship that eventually Sridevi won. Queen of the box-office, top billing, awards, double roles, title roles, highest of salaries for a leading lady, the ability to pick and choose her directors and co-stars, the hand that rocked the box-office, rocked the cine-world. 

Jaya Prada worked in more films with Amitabh Bachchan and initially had one hit song after another, while acting in major titles. However, one doesn't remember a leading lady in a Big B film - they were merely decorative (with exceptions of course!)... a lesson Sri learned quickly. In the wild wild west of Bollywood in the 1980s, somehow Sridevi picked better projects that bolstered her stunning career.  

Despite all the machinations behind the scenes by Jaya Prada's strategic brother, fate favoured Sridevi in the 1980s. The undisputed Number One star. 

The cast and crew of Gumrah

 Film producer Yash Johar, Anupam Kher, Sridevi, Sanjay Dutt and director Mahesh Bhatt. 

 The cast and crew of the film Gumrah in Hong Kong!