Sridevi: Filmfare Interview: "I'm battling with myself all the time." Sridevi and Ashok Amritraj deny the rumours and quash it

Sridevi: Filmfare Interview: "I'm battling with myself all the time." 

Before social media, Sridevi (and all the top stars of their time) had to put up with a lot of rubbish written about them with little recourse. When rumours of a proposal with Ashok Amritraj spread like wildfire in the early 90s, Sridevi was baffled by the news and addressed it in a cover story with Filmfare. 

Excerpt:

Filmfare: Why this sudden desire to spend more time in Madras? Does it have anything to do with your marriage proposal? Is it true that you are considering marrying Ashok Amritraj?

Sridevi: She blows the jamun seed out of the window. "Good you raised the topic," she says with a hint of impatience in her voice. "The Amritraj story is a figment of somebody's imagination. I think somebody's trying to harm my career by deliberately spreading panic." She blows one more jamun seed out of the window. "I am not marrying Amritraj. There has been no proposal. You can check with them (we do, see page 73). If there had been a proposal, why would we hide it? What's wrong if a boy proposes to a girl?"

It's pack-up time. Sridevi hurriedly gets ready to leave. "You won't believe this," she says with a twinkle in her eyes. "Even today, when a director says 'Pack up!', it sounds like the school bell and I rush home like a little girl."

Home in Hyderabad is the Gateway Hotel..."

Below: Filmfare got the exclusive with the man himself, tennis champion turned film producer Ashok Amritraj. Famous in different circles, Amritraj was seven years older than Sridevi, wealthier than top Indian actress (which could not be said of most other eligible men in the industry) and both were south Indian (he was Madras born, she was Sivakasi born). 

The grocery list of prospects for the boy in this oddly sexist article is bemusing to note. The denials are from all parties, the names and their families. And yet, pre internet, random rumours floated for years on end without an iota of truth to them.  

Earlier Cine Blitz snippet about the alleged marriage proposal between Sridevi and Ashok Amritraj below- both hotly contested and denied by each party.  Ashok denied it (above) and so did Sridevi. And yet the rumours have persisted for decades.