Filmfare asks: How safe is Sridevi? Throwback to May 1986!

Throwback to Filmfare, May 1986. 

Media foisted Sridevi as the Number One star in 1984 and by 1986, they were dragging her! The article ran in May - little did they know what was ahead! Come November, Sridevi had Nagina! In 1987, Mr.India and in 1989 Chaalbaaz and Chandni... It was the mid era of Sridevi, they just didn't know it yet!

Excerpt: 

The rumblings have begun: Sridevi is slipping from her pedestal; Meenakshi is closing in on her; Rekha is being resurrected; Jaya Prada may yet spring a surprise. And so on. Is the scene set for a dramatic change at the top?

She's pouting pretty. Sridevi's been in the gravy for the last two years. Like Mumtaz in her heyday, she has four films running simultaneously: Sultanat, Dharm Adhikari, Suhaagan and Bhagwaan Dada.

Yet the buzz is that the actress who wears the crown is in an uneasy position. Her powers may be usurped anyday. No doubt, she still commands the highest fee (trade circles chalk the amount at Rs. 12 lakh per film) and has the most glittering assignments on hand. At the same time, all her films haven't done the kind of business normally associated with the actress who flashed her thighs, all-round oomph. In short, looks that could kill ever since she hit big the time with that madcap movie Himmatwala.

Though she's not to blame for the poor show of Sultanat and Dharam Adhikari at the box-office, it is felt that her presence doesn't necessarily mean serpentine queues at the cash counters. Moreover there's that feeling that...

Though in her early thirties, Rekha is still the most sensual and seductive of actresses. But the trouble is, she has never played her cards right. She did take over the mantle of Number One from Hema, but soon lost it to Sridevi thanks to her lackadaisical temperament. But she has changed, and wants to fight her way back. If some industry sources are to be believed. If that's right, she is still a force to reckon with...