Sridevi with Shahrukh Khan, Mohnish Behl, Sudesh Berry, Ronit Roy, Ravi Kisen and Harish Kumar in Army

Sridevi with her co-stars of Army shot by Jagdish Mali.

Sridevi with her Army star-cast including Mohnish Behl, Sudesh Berry, Ronit Roy, Ravi Kissen and Harish Kumar. 

Rare images of Shahrukh Khan on set - he had an extended guest-appearance in the film. Excerpt from an interview he did during the film's production:

Interview with Shahrukh Khan on the sets of Army by Cine Blitz, July 1996.

Shahrukh Khan, "...a very important reason was Sreedevi. I had nine films on hand and none of them starred Sreedevi. So this as my chance to work with a legend one had heard so much about. I wanted to find out what makes her tick. She's been around for almost 35 years and still looks great. Here's an actor like me who is exhausted after five years."


Didn't he feel he'd look like a boy as compared to her? *

"Oh come on! You can't put Sreedevi in the older woman bracket. I'm 31 and there's not much of an age difference between us."


Did he find out what keeps her ticking?

"One had heard about her switch on switch off performance. All I can say is, that one hundred per cent, I learnt a lot from Sreedevi. We have a song and about two or three scenes but it was a great experience."

NOTES:

Wow. The inherently sexist and ageist question pelted at Shah Rukh Khan, at the expense of Sridevi is just beyond... Shahrukh Khan is just two years younger than Sridevi, but the way the question is phrased, makes it sound as if Sridevi was ancient. It really reflects on how the Indian film industry -  Mumbai media in particular  - operates and sees women of a certain age as expendable. At the time, Sridevi was just 33!!

Let's turn the tables here. Shahrukh Khan at age 51 acted with Mahira Khan, age 32 - when Raees was her first Hindi film in Bollywood! No one seemed to have asked Mahira what she felt like while acting with someone 19 years her senior. As the Khans and Kumars hit 50+, their co-stars keep getting younger. 

While actresses like Sridevi, Madhuri and Juhi, the holy trifecta of Bollywood divas who ruled the roost in the 1990s, find it difficult to find age-appropriate costars in their films.