Every Director's Dream: Sridevi.
Excerpt from an interview with prolific Hindi film director Raj Kanwar from 1999.
Q: You have directed Sridevi in two films, Laadla (1994) and Judaai (1997). What was the experience like?
Raj Kanwar: "In fact, I have worked with Sridevi in four films, two as an assistant director, Mr. India (1987), Ram-Avtar (1988) and then I made two films with her as director, Laadla and Judaai.
Q: Why did you give her slightly negative roles?
I wouldn't call those roles negative, they were challenging roles. Since l'd worked with her as an assistant director, I had a good rapport with her. She is a very introverted. I would always tell her she ought not to be like this. I used to |tell her that I didn't like her that way and she would ask me, What do you mean, you don't like me? I would share jokes with her and try to make her laugh. I like her very much. I am a big fan of hers. In Laada, Sridevi wasn't the original choice,
Divya Bharti was supposed to do the role. Divya was supposed to do Kartavya too. But after Divya's death, people told me that I should pack up since I had completed 80 per cent of the film and that nothing could be done about that.
I went up to Sridevi and asked her to do the film. I didn't ask her, just told her that she should do it. She looked at me for some time and then told me to narrate the story for her. I did that and she liked the role. She agreed, and the rest is history.
Sridevi is a very easy person to work with. She understands her character very well. And she is a thorough professional. She didn't give me a day's trouble. She would come and leave on time. She hated night shooting though, and asked me not to keep them, but she did it when I needed it. She's a wonderful person."
As an actress how much did Sridevi contribute to each film?
Immeasurably. There is one scene that Sridevi had with Farida Jalal where she cuts her wrist with a knife. After the take, where Sri cuts her wrist and before starting to shoot the following portion of the scene, Sridevi asked for water. She poured few drops on her face and on her neck to show that she has sweated. When I shot the same scene before with Divya, neither I nor her even thought of this. Sridevi's contribution to minor and major details is incredible. She is my favorite actress.
Q: After a series of failures, how did Nitin Manmohan take the foolhardy step of casting them [Anil Kapoor and Sridevi] together?
Nitin Manmohan: That is what many people told me and advised me against doing But I didn't listen to them because I feel it was sheer bad luck that the earlier Anil-Sridevi starrers had very lousy scripts. So naturally they flopped. You can't just add grand sets and good music and songs without a good script and expect the crowds to flock to the theatres for your movie. But my ace is that I have a very good script in hand. Sridevi is a fantastic actress, anytime better than Divya [Bharti]. Today nobody can match up to her talent.
Q: But wouldn't Sridevi and Raveena [Tandon] who belong to different age groups look incongruous?
Nitin Manmohan: No, no, I am sure they will look good together and Raveena was very sporting about the whole thing, not at all hesitant. The script of the movie is such that all three, Anil, Sridevi and Raveena have equal scope and whoever acts well will score over the others. Even in the Telugu and Tamil versions of the same script, it was the role of the underdog in the movie, which is now being played by Raveena, which got the maximum applause and acclaim.
Showtime, 1993
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