Publicity in print for Sherni: Sridevi's OG 1988 film with Pran and Shatrughan Sinha

It's a newspaper advert not an article or report, so take the headline like a tequila shot; with a pinch of salt. 

Sridevi in yet another title-role back in 1988; Sherni. 

Producer/director Harmesh Malhotra's take on the Phoolan Devi story - believe it or not! 

As far as we can recollect, the movie was in fact a flop at the box-office and producer Pawan Kumar just barely recovered costs. The most expensive feature being... well, Sridevi's hefty remuneration. 

Long before the discussion of pay disparity, Sridevi was quietly leading the pack with title roles, scripts written for her and a paycheck worthy of her pan-Indian fame and superstar status. If we held up the accounts of movie-making in the mid 80s, Sridevi was often paid as much as, if not more than her male co-stars in the mid to late 80s. She just didn't advertise the fact ! 

The OG Queen of Bollywood.  Sridevi.