Editor Rauf Ahmed's revelations: Jaya Prada's family blocked Sridevi's films, Anil and Boney Kapoor backed Madhuri, Sridevi should have won for Chandni not Chaalbaaz!

 Former editor of Filmfare, Rauf Ahmed: I used to do the Filmfare Awards in the south, and it was rather casual in the '80s for South Indian filmmakers to make Hindi films. Jaya Prada and Sridevi had had this fierce competition. Jaya Prada’s brother, who owned cinemas, blocked Sridevi’s films from being screened. But they lost a lot of money and it didn’t make sense to be this childish and immature. Jeetendra brought Sridevi to Bollywood with her second Hindi film Himmatwala. The film did very well and Sridevi overtook Jaya Prada, but [the former] was a greater dancer and was considered to have more sex appeal. In fact she overtook everybody.

I remember I asked Javed Akhtar – when I was doing a cover story on Sridevi for Filmfare – and he said Sridevi’s the first heroine who has brought to the screen the kind of sensuality she became known for. Once Himmatwala happened, she always won praise. [In 1990] there was a bit of controversy when Sridevi won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for Chaalbaaz instead of Chandni. The jury felt her performance in Chaalbaaz was superior but most people in the industry felt it was gimmicky and that Chandni was more emotionally touching.

Sridevi stood out with her films; especially with Yash Chopra’s Chandni. But she had already established herself by then. Then in the '90s there was competition between Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit about who Saroj Khan worked with. At the time, both Anil and Boney Kapoor were backing Madhuri Dixit. Things got very bad for Sridevi around the time her mother died and her sister Latha became estranged. She felt alone and insecure. She was getting too insecure, about being a woman who’s not from the north, not so fluent in Hindi.

She was initially very diffident about [interviews] and not very fluent in English and couldn't speak Hindi very fluently but she was a great performer. In the beginning, she was a little intimidated by the media in Bombay. She was not openly flamboyant and she would underplay herself. She was always professional and didn’t talk too much because she was concerned about being watched [by the media]. After Himmatwala, I think she gained more confidence. She was very communicative if she trusted you and she would speak to you very well. She is my favourite personally and she's a phenomenal actress.

Boney Kapoor challenged Shekar Kapoor to make Sridevi sexier than ‘Har kisko nahin milta’ in Feroz Khan’s Janbaaz. It was a sensuous dance, the first time for Sridevi. At that time, Saroj Khan was taking a lot of care of Sridevi. That’s how ‘Kaate Nahi Katte’ came about, because of a challenge.