Sridevi's Lamhe with Yash Chopra: Actress talks about working with the director in films

Stardust, Dec 2012. A tribute to Yash Chopra by Sridevi for Stardust.

Great memories of the director and his favourite muse, actress Sridevi. Such a rare feature to  have just Sridevi speak uninterrupted. Great insights into their working relationship.

Excerpts:

Sridevi's Lamhe with Yash Chopra 

Sridevi, "People always thought that he was serious and strict as a person, but he was like a child. I was totally amazed by his energy levels.

For the first time in my career, I worked with a director who gave as much importance to the looks and the costumes of his heroine as the script and the screenplay. Bhanu Athaiyya was the costume designer for Chandni and those days, I used to do about five to six shifts a day and after all that, I used to sit with Bhanuji and Yashji to finalize my costumes for every scene. Every day, they would come and discuss about the detailing of something as simple as a salwar-kameez and I used to feel why he is giving so much importance to salwar-kameez. It was only later that I understood why he was so particular about the costumes and my look in every scene of the film. Today, when any girl wears a white salwar-kameez, she gets compared to my look from Chandni.

Everybody loved him so much that nobody could say no to him. I remember while shooting for Lamhe, for even the smallest scene, he would make me wear so many different costumes till he got the right look. I had tried over 50 costumes on one day that was dedicated only for finalizing the costumes and the looks. He would sit with the photographer; ask him to take my picture in a costume and say, "Yeh look air yeh dress hum is particular scene main use karenge." For every scene, the costume would get finalized and tagged. Costumes were always pre-decided so that no time would be wasted once the shooting was on. For example, if scene number 57 was to be shot, the costume for that would be ready in advance with the tag of no. 57 on it. So the assistant would just have to go and get that dress. He was an absolute perfectionist.

People ask me if I miss him more as a filmmaker or as a person. I miss him more as a person simply because it's very rare to come across a person with such great a combination. He was full of love and affection. He used to enjoy watching good movies and wouldn't hesitate to praise people for their good work."

Left: Designer Bhanu Athaiya with her Oscar for Gandhi. Above: Sridevi on the sets of Chandni and Lamhe with producer/director Yash Chopra over the years.