Sridevi as a child artist in Tamil film Thunaivan (1969)

As the upcoming film English Vinglish steps into week two of its production, we rewind all the way back to 1967, when young, four-year-old Sridevi first appeared on film. It's hard to say how many films Sridevi has done as having worked in five film industries (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayali and Hindi), we haven't yet formed a definitive, comprehensive list of Sridevi's films. But we're working on it!

Here is Sridevi, all of four, in her first ever on-screen appearance, looking absolutely adorable.

From an early Good Housekeeping interview, we quote: 

Sridevi, "Karviarasar introduced me to Devar (a Kannada director) and persuaded him to cast me as the child Lord Muruga in his movie, Thunaivan. In between, Devar asked mother to shave my hair for the role but she put her foot down and almost whisked me off the sets. Finally, I played baby Muruga with longer hair" (And of course baby Sridevi looked utterly adorable)

It was on the sets of Thunaivan that MG Ramachandran spotted Sridevi and signed her on for Nam Naadu (1969). And a spate of films began. Soon she was a star and still not 10!...."

More at earlier feature: Good Housekeeping.

More pics of Sridevi as a child artist here.



From Wikipedia: Thunaivan (Companion) is a 1969 Tamil film, a Hindu devotional drama  directed by M. A. Thirumugam and produced by Sandow M. M. A. Chinnappa Thevar. The film script were written by V. Balamurugan. Music by K. V. Mahadevan

The film stars A. V. M. Rajan and Sowkar Janaki in lead roles while Major Sundararajan, Nagesh, Sachu, Vennira Aadai Nirmala and K. B. Sundarambal play supporting roles. Sridevi made her acting debut with this film in the role of little Lord Muruga.  This film was a musical hit and won a National Film Award for singer K. B. Sundarambal. The film was a commercial success and ran for over 100 days.