Has Sridevi really done 300 films? And what's in a name?

So there are a multitude of reasons of why we've been maintaining this blog - and an earlier version of it - for the past two decades. To have an archive of Sridevi images, interviews, quotes... well, anything really in the orbit of the luminous Indian actress.

We are still grieving her loss... and her absence in the world has emboldened our drive to keep her alive online, one jpeg and byte at a time.

During the promotions of the film Mom, the Indian media had picked up this lofty notion that Sridevi had appeared in 300 Indian films.

Immediately our brows perked up in doubt. Hmm. 300 films... It seemed plausible; the actress had worked for fifty years in five different Indian languages, but without fact-checking (a ludicrous notion in the age of alacrity over accuracy!) for even a second, the media went berserk over that headline-friendly number.

300 films makes a nice round number and makes for a splashy headline - but not an infallible one.

We just did a quick wiki search and here's what we've tabulated so far. Sridevi has appeared in...

Tamil Films 
72

Malayalam 
25

Kannada 
6

Telugu 
91

Hindi 
72

Total:
266

If anyone can find us the remaining 34, we'd greatly appreciate it...!

Unreleased films DO NOT COUNT. Incomplete films DO NOT COUNT! As much as we'd like to include Garajna or Zameen and the like - we only have speculative information on how much of those movies were made but the fact is, they never saw the light of day and probably never will -  so what's the point of including them?!

For the record Mom was not her 300th film, but her 266th* - and even that we are yet to verify. 

This is not to undercut any of Sridevi's vast achievements but to perforate the mythic bubbles around Sridevi. Indian film journalists who do the absolute bare minimum - if even any - research and background check when it comes to movies and movie stars before hitting 'publish'. 

There are so many examples online of faulty film journalism that its too exhausting to list. From the misrepresentation of Sridevi's name - Shree Amma Iyenger? Really? Where did that come from?! - to stating that Sridevi won Filmfare awards for Moondram Pirai / Sadma. No she didn't. She deserved to win - obviously - but was denied the honours those years.

This blog is constantly updated, edited and more importantly corrected on a near-daily, if not weekly basis.

The truth matters. Even when it comes to the world of make-believe.