From Chaalbaaz in London Backlash to Eetha Acclaim Shraddha Kapoor for the Win!

Shraddha Kapoor: From Chaalbaaz in London [a stupid idea] Backlash to Eetha Acclaim

In 2021, Shraddha Kapoor found herself at the centre of heated debate when she was announced as the lead in Chaalbaaz in London, the much-talked-about remake of the 1989 cult classic Chaalbaaz. The announcement on April 3, 2021, drew mixed reactions, with many questioning the decision to step into the shoes of the late Sridevi, who had delivered a legendary, Filmfare Award-winning double-role razar sharp performance. Critics and fans alike called it a risky - even unwise - move, and the project was eventually put on hold, quietly fading from headlines.

Cut to 2026, and Shraddha is once again making waves, but this time for all the right reasons. The actress is receiving widespread praise and excitement for the trailer of her upcoming film Eetha, with audiences and critics lauding her performance and screen presence.

The contrasting headlines five years apart highlight the unpredictable nature of Bollywood: one ambitious project that invited scepticism, and another that appears to be winning hearts. While Chaalbaaz in London remains in limbo, Shraddha’s current run and trailer response - particularly while comparing with the tepid response to Alia Bhatt's Alpha - is incredible. At age 39, Shraddha is finally getting her bouquets after a consistent run of decent performances, but mixed box-office } the only thing the industry seems to respond to. No matter what the box-office will be, Shraddha's got a winner at hand - the movie looks fantastic. The same, alas, cannot be said of Alia's Alpha...  And no, we weren't paid to troll - we are all fans of both as Sridevi was a fan of both. 

Our instinctive, gut response to Chaalbaaz in London was ... oh No! It sounds stupid and desperate. Pankaj Parasher's box-office track record has not been great - which has been well documented. Worse still, he's also made some, terrible movies recently and hasn't made a decent or successful film in two decades. Like Subash Ghai, he's lost his touch and has no idea what the pulse of the current, fractured audience is. As Taal 2 sounds like a frantic lean on an IP, so did Chaalbaaz the sequel! 

Shraddha - despite what her father says earlier - has shown a strong comedic side in social media, in live interviews, but so far hasn't done a great and memorable comedic performance (unlike Sri, Juhi, Kajol, Kareena, Rekha, Hema etc).  Her dramatic attempts have been... ok, pales in comparison to 'the great Sridevi.' Thankfully, it looks like the remake is shelved. 

The criticism Shradha faced is familiar - as an aspiring Sridevi/Bollywood historian, we are familiar with the fact that Sridevi faced early critique in 1988-1989 too. It was obvious Chaalbaaz was a modernised retelling of Seetha aur Geetha, which was already a remake of [gender-different] Ram aur Shyam. Sridevi had to have box-office clout of Hema Malini and the acting range of thespian Dilip Kumar. To a great extent she fulfilled those high expectations; the film was a box-office hit and critically acclaimed and got Sridevi one of her several Best Actress nods. Be it Kareena Kapoor or Kajol, or even Ayushman Khurrana many state this is a favourite female-led performance. 

BTW for those who like to keep track the double role dramedy of errors has been done several times by stars of all stripes; 

Iconic Double Role Films in Indian Cinema

Film	Year	Actor (Double Role)	Box Office Verdict	Critical Acclaim
Ramudu Bheemudu	1964	N.T. Rama Rao (NTR)	Major Hit / Blockbuster	High (Trendsetter in Telugu cinema)
Ram Aur Shyam	1967	Dilip Kumar	Super Hit	High (Classic, widely loved)
Sita Aur Gita	1972	Hema Malini	Super Hit	Very High (Cult classic, iconic)
Chaalbaaz	1989	Sridevi	Hit	Very High (Sridevi’s dual performance legendary)
Kishen Kanhaiya	1990	Anil Kapoor	Hit	Moderate to Good (Commercial entertainer)
Judwaa	1997	Salman Khan	Super Hit	Moderate (Popular mass entertainer)
Duplicate	1998	Shah Rukh Khan	Average	Mixed
Judwaa 2	2017	Varun Dhawan	Super Hit	Mixed to Negative (Big commercial success)

* Source: Compiled from box office reports, Wikipedia & film reviews. Data is approximate and a guesstimation for older films.

Shahrukh Khan with Sridevi in Army

Shahrukh Khan and Sridevi on the sets of the film Army; a Sridevi-led film that released on 28 June 1996! 

The King and Queen: King Khan and The Queen of Bollywood; Sridevi in Army

 

Sridevi's film Army (1996) was released on 28 June 1996 in India. The action-revenge drama directed by Raam Shetty, with Sridevi in the lead role (as a woman avenging her husband's death by raising a group of young men), her notable co-stars included Mohnish Behl, Sudesh Berry, Ronit Roy, Harish, Danny Denzongpa, and others. Shahrukh Khan appeared in an extended special/guest role (in flashbacks, as the murdered husband Arjun). Khan's extended cameo was talked about at length - he famously did the film just to share a frame with "the legend Sridevi."

Overall, the movie was commercially viable and successful in recovering its costs with reasonable profitability—just not among the year's top smashes like Raja Hindustani.

We've got a massive archive of images and features about the film here.  

Sridevi with her Army: Mohnish Behl, Sudesh Berry, Ronit Roy, Harish and Ravi Kishan.

Sridevi with her Army: Mohnish Behl, Sudesh Berry, Ronit Roy, Harish and Ravi Kishan. 

Released on 28 June 1996, the first appearance of Shahrukh Khan after the runaway success of DDLJ, the movie had a phenomenal opening. The modest budget film, co-produced by Mukul Anand, more than tripled its returns, but the slow-burn film was originally written off. 

Sridevi looked and acted well, but the film is... undoubtedly predictable as the familiar tropes of a revenge drama, be it Karma or Sholay, are all lined up. 

Sridevi in 1989: Sridevi according to AI in 2026: The cultural damage of image modification

Photo editing is a skill - and ai machinery that's "fixing", resurrecting, colour correcting... is putting a generic stamp and impossible beauty standard on women and the slop is erasing women for the natural beauty and flaws and fabulousity. Sridevi's original photos ai corrected is an over correction. To such a point, the post-edited photo looks nothing like the original icon that Sridevi was.... which brings me to the latest rant of the day;

The Erosion of Authenticity: How AI Photo Editing is Undermining Cultural Icons

Fasten your seat-belts, its going to be a bumpy ride.

Photo editing has long been a skilled craft - one that respects light, composition, and the soul of the subject. Today’s AI “restoration,” colour correction, and “enhancement” tools, however, function more like blunt instruments of homogenisation. They stamp faces with a generic, poreless, impossibly symmetrical beauty standard that flattens individuality. What gets erased is not merely technical imperfection but the very essence of natural beauty: the expressive asymmetries, lived-in lines, distinctive features, and charismatic flaws that made icons unforgettable. The result is visual slop — technically polished, culturally hollow.

Take Sridevi, the legendary Indian actress whose magnetic screen presence defined an era. Her original photographs capture a vibrant, singular face: the sharp expressiveness of her eyes, the particular curve of her smile, her bulbous nose that somehow was a source of constant chagrin to only her - no one else - the energy that radiated from her bone structure and expressions. AI “corrections” of these images often go far beyond dust removal or colour balancing. They smooth, reshape, and re-proportion her features until the woman staring back barely resembles the icon millions adored. The over-correction doesn’t honour her - it replaces her with a generic template of contemporary attractiveness, what (often Western) ideals of beauty standards that obfuscate original identity into a mass produced reserve of Barbie-fication. The fabulousity born of her specific humanity disappears.

This pattern repeats across yesteryear stars. AI systems, trained predominantly on current beauty trends and filtered social media imagery, systematically diminish the very characteristics that gave actors cultural weight: a crooked smile that conveyed mischief, a prominent nose that lent gravitas, skin texture that told stories of age and experience, or eyes whose unique shape conveyed emotion with precision. These traits weren’t flaws; they were signatures. By erasing them, AI severs the visual link between the public and the performer’s authentic self.

In another decade (if not sooner), the damage may become irreversible. Future generations will encounter “restored” archives of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, MGR, or Sridevi that look like smoothed avatars rather than real people. The cultural significance of these icons - rooted in their tangible, flawed, human presence - will dilute into shadow versions of themselves. Historical memory itself risks distortion: we will remember not who they were, but what an algorithm decided they should have been.

Preserving original photographs, unedited or lightly and transparently restored, is therefore an act of cultural stewardship. Authenticity carries emotional truth. When we let AI overwrite that truth with generic perfection, we don’t just lose pixels - we lose the irreplaceable texture of human stardom.

Sridevi in red

Sridevi at the wedding of Sanjay Kapoor and Maheep. During the mehendi ceremony. Naughty... to look better than the bride! Well... she couldn't help it! 

Sridevi

When Sridevi was modeling Maheep Kapoor's jewellery collection. 

She looked so gorgeous in several of the images, particularly this ad psoter...