Sunday 10 October 2010

Sridevi at the Beach in Madras (Chennai!): Photographer captures superstar on home turf

Sridevi and her family photographed by the late, great Gautam Rajadhyaksha, on the beach near her Madras (it wasn't Chennai back then!) house, surrounded by family and friends.  Too cute!! Has Sridevi ever looked happier? That beaming smile. 

This is the rarest look into the private life of Sridevi during the absolute peak of her career. This is long before, marriage and children. The kids in the pics are her cousins or children of other family members, you can find Maheshwari and Sreelatha among others here. Sridevi said she was a "water baby", loved swimming, the ocean and so on. 


click to enlarge

An excerpt from the book Faces by journalist and photographer, the late, great Gautam Rajadhyaksha (who took all the photos in this page and thousands of others of Sridevi spanning 15 years);

Gautam da said of Sridevi, "There are two Sridevis. Two people as different from each other as you can imagine, leading quite separate lives, who never seem to meet even though they inhabit the same body.

I first met the off-screen Sridevi. She's shy unsure, awkward, an almost simple-looking girl who even talks in barely audible murmurs. Never mind. Her responses seem as pallid as her personality.

There there is the screen Sridevi who appears as if by magic the minute you switch on the arch lights. She's a sensuous seductress capable of unblocking your abused arteries with one look from her smouldering eyes! No matter how she saps my energy and spontaneity with her obsession for perfection, the Adrenalin spurts back the moment she turns to face the camera.


Many years later later in Madras, I made the wonderful discovery that there is a secret door in the dividing wall that sometimes opens. The Sridevi that emerged as her two selves merged was a revelation. Relaxed and comfortable on her home turf, she was ebullient and playful, vivacious and childlike, gamin and gauche as I shot her frolicking on the beach with cousins, nieces and assorted children. But I never met her again."











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