Sridevi as a young model in the early 1980s

Sridevi as a young model in the early 1980s for Vimal saris. 

The advertising game - big money for short shoots - was won by Sridevi early on. She modeled famously for clothing and accessories, water, home furnishings, cooking oil... everything really! 

There were some stars who were famously against promotions and product sales but Sridevi (and her famed momager) saw every gig as just that, a gig; a paying job is a paying job. All well and dandy for severely well-paid male actors to stand on a high moral horse but as actresses made less than a quarter of what their male counterparts did (Sridevi changed that in later years), the women made their own money through nifty ideas. Don't forget, in the early days Indian actresses had to wear their own clothes and accessories, pay their own hair and makeup team too. The industry was an entirely different entity to what corporate-ised Bollywood has become today.