The Sridevi centrefold: How Amitabh Bachchan sent Sridevi a truckload - not a bouquet - of flowers!

If Khuda Gawah was shot the way it was originally cast, it would have had Amitabh Bachchan and Dimple Kapadia, Sanjay Dutt and Farah Khan! But from initial talk to film release, everything about the movie changed - as we discover from film magazines from the late 1980s. 

Excerpt: 
 

"... used no such bait to lure the reluctant Empress into signing the film. Says Desai, "When negotiations broke down with Dimple, I wanted to sign Sridevi, but I was hesitant because I'd heard that she'd been turning down films with Amitabh. I didn't want her to refuse my offer (being chairman of the Amitabh Fan Club, obviously he wanted to do nothing that would embarrass Bachchan) but when I sounded her, I got no negative vibes. I met her again and explained how the film had two angles - she was to play both Amitabh and Sanjay Dutt's girlfriends. She seemed very keen to do the film. 

In fact, her enthusiasm surprised me. So, I asked her if it was true that she'd been turning down films with Amitabh and she denied ever having done that. She maintained that it was a false rumour - that she'd never said she would never work with 'Amitji' and that all she'd ever demanded was a substantial role in any film offered to her. And since most Bachchan films were a one-man show, there was nothing for her to do in those films, and now since we were offering her a good role, she was willing to do it."

Desai found it all very 'reasonable'. But it isn't as simple as he makes it out to be. Her 'reasonableness' seems to be a very recent occurrence. Earlier, when Shashi Kapoor had approached Sridevi for an important role in his prestigious Ajooba, she'd asked him precisely what her role in the film would be. When an excited Shashi began narrating the film's story to her, she is said to have cut him short with a 'Look, why don't you come down to Madras and narrate the story to my father? If he likes it then you can discuss the money with my mother'. Naturally, Shashi didn't pursue the matter any further.

Amitabh was quick to grab the initiative for a reconciliation. Impressed by Sridevi's riveting dance in Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja, he sent her a truckload of flowers and a warm note. Sridevi, not impervious to his charm and the diktat of the box-office, conveniently succumbed...."