Sridevi in 1985, age 22, queen of the marquee!
By then, allllllllllll the leading film magazines had declared it - in fact, Filmfare had declared that Sridevi was 'the' Top Actress earlier in 1984 - which many thought was premature. But the editors pointed out that the writing was on the wall regarding Sri's contemporaries; beautiful and talented Rekha was too erratic and unreliable, erstwhile queen Hema Malini was in domestic bliss with two kids, Madhuri Dixit was still a distant spec (Abodh had released in 1984 but about 20 people saw that), Jaya Prada had mostly flops - and the hits she had, Sridevi was also in those films! Sure Sharaabi was a superhit but, it was out and out an Amitabh Bachchan film and title role. Be it Radha, Bhanupriya or Meenakshi Sheshadiri, they were all indistinguishable and interchangeable.
With top billing, paychecks and A-list co-stars, Sridevi had also started signing title roles and a series of double roles and making headlines in every magazine for the deals she was signing. And she was just 22. Incredible.
She was the CEO of a company, the company was Sridevi! She was an industry; a one-woman industry. Shuttling from Madras to Bombay to Hyderabad, living in hotels in and out of suitcases, when she declared in print, "Every minute of my life is... expensive!" she wasn't peacocking, just stating facts.
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