Sridevi always had a cherub, baby face, but whenever she (or the film) wanted to show a youthful Sridevi, the plats and hoop earrings and the contemporary dresses came out. When she was a teenager, she looked mature (height, long legs, statuesque presence - and gosh if ever a lady was born to wear a sari gracefully, 'twas Sri!). When she was in her late 20s, people assumed she was hitting 40 simply because she had been around for so long and done so many movies.
BTW it was a formula that seemed to have been followed by other actresses too; be it Madhuri Dixit in parts of Koyla and Prem Granth or Juhi Chawla in her oh-so-cutesy roles.
Govinda and Sridevi were the same age, but by the time he did a film with her, Sridevi had already appeared in over 100 films, and Gair Kanooni (the only film they appeared together in) was only his 11th release. False reports of the age gap were published then. The two never worked together after the endless delay in production of that film as professional and punctual Sridevi was working with someone who was famously not (despite his vast talents)!
Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan were just two years younger than Sridevi but when they appeared in films with her, by their own volition and fandom of the actress, Sridevi faced criticism for working with 'younger heroes.' Sridevi's statement, 'I'm not so ancient,' tried to calm the storm, but the failure of films (particularly the unbearable Chaand kaa Tukdaa and Chandra Mukhi) made an editor in Showtime say, "Oh, her time is up!" Sridevi was just 30 when that statement was published BTW.
Bollywood continues to be youth obsessed - well, only with the leading ladies. The superstars, esp the Khan trifecta, are touching 60 and there doesn't seem to be a shortage of any work for them. Actresses of a certain age find employment only on OTT platforms (Madhuri Dixit, Raveena Tandon!) and occasionally in the West (Tabu!).
The more things change, the more they stay the same...
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