Sridevi: Age 14 but in the film At the Age of 16!

 Sridevi: Age 14 but in the film At the Age of 16! 

Sridevi in her Tamil blockbuster 16 Vayathinile. 

Left: Sridevi in Solwa Saawan, the Hindi version of 16 Vayathinile 

Sridevi and Kamal Haasan in 16 Vayathinile (1977)

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How it all began... Sridevi and Kamal Haasan in 16 Vayathinile

Below: Rare pic from the sets of the film; Kamal Haasan in discussion with Bharathiraja with Sridevi standing beside him.

Sridevi and Kamal Haasan in 16 Vayathinile (1977):

16 Vayathinile aka At the age of 16 (1977). Sridevi's first mega-hit with Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth. The movie was re-made in Hindi as Solva Saawan and was a huge box-office flop. Sridevi expressed her distress in making the film in Hindi, its almost inevitable bombing at the box-office and how relieved she was to go back to working in Tamil films as she didn't understand the language (Hindi) and the way Bollywood worked.

She came back years later with a bang... Himmatwala was released in 1983 and was the biggest blockbuster of the year. Sri never looked back.

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Above: Rare poster art of Sridevi and Kamal Haasan in 16 Vayathinile. 

Young Sridevi in the Tamil film 16 Vayathinile

One of Sridevi's earlier films, the iconic 16 Vayathinile will hit the screens of Southern India once again. The digitally remastered version is coming soon - the trailer to release tomorrow! With co-stars Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth (looking alarmingly pink in the above snap!) who are bigger than ever-before, will be interesting to see how this plays out at the box-office as three icons of Tamil cinema reunite on screen again.


UPDATE: At the trailer launch, sadly, Sridevi didn't attend but superstars Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth did.

From TOI

He might have missed the trailer launch of Ninaithale Inikkum, but Rajinikanth made up for it by turning up for the trailer launch of the 1977 film 16 Vayathinile, in which he shared screen space with Kamal Haasan.

The Superstar went on a nostalgic trip when talking at the event. "During the shoot, no one would talk to me, as I was a relative newcomer. It was Kamal, to whom the production people went, to have a chat," he said. Praising the film's producer Rajkannu, he said, "When Rajkannu met me about re-releasing 16 Vayathinile a few months back, he told me that we should give away the collections to Kamal, who was at that time having difficulties in releasing Vishwaroopam. It is difficult to find such persons in our film industry."

Kamal, meanwhile, spoke on how the film had to overcome a number of odds to get released. "The majority of comments that we got when making the film was that it would flop. In fact, when I was driving from the studio, a person riding a bike came up to me and said that the film will tank," he said. On the difficulties the crew faced during production, he said, "When we shot the scene of Mayilu running in slow motion, we did not have the budget to afford a camera that could shoot slow motion scenes. So, Sridevi literally ran in slow motion."

Talking about his relationship with Rajinikanth, Kamal said that it was remarkable that their friendship has withstood the test of time despite several people trying to drive a wedge between the two. Director Bharathirajaa revealed that Rajini told Sridevi to spit on him for real in the scene in which Mayilu spits on the face of Parattai. "It was taking several takes to shoot the scene and finally, Rajini went to Sridevi and told her to go ahead and spit for real. Such was his dedication," he remarked.

The film is due for re-release on Oct 17, 2013. 

16 Vayathinile - ie At the Age of 16 - the leading lady Sridevi was in fact 14! A nuanced, mature performance, she was a born actress, but trained by the movie masters of Madras.   

Kamal Haasan and Sridevi in Padaharella Vayasu (1978): A career defining film for both