Sridevi with Aamir Khan : The cover shot, the outtake!

The incredible cover shoot featuring superstars Sridevi and Aamir Khan. Major throwback to 1989! 

Editor Dinesh Raheja on getting the casting coup of the decade, Aamir Khan with Sridevi

Aamir Khan turns 57 today - so an opportune time to repost this behind the scenes tale when Sridevi posed with Aamir for a unique magazine cover shoot. Sri was 26, Aamir was 24 - together they were magical. 

 

HAPPY TO BE RUDE

I was a pushover till ...

Excited to be appointed as the editor of MOVIE magazine, I wanted to begin with a splash. So I approached overnight sensation Aamir and reigning diva Sridevi to pose jointly ...and surprise surprise they agreed! I was ecstatic.

MOVIE had recently appointed a new duo of expensive designers (read that as SOBO snobs). When we came back from the darkroom after seeing the fab pics, they announced, "We have decided to go with a Sridevi solo cover." 

After recovering from their salvo, I politely but vehemently underlined that as the Editor I would be the one to decide who will be on the cover. But they began discussing the details of the solo cover with each other as if I weren't present in the room. 

One of them had a big nose (like Pinocchio) so I angrily shot back, 'You keep your big nose out of it." And she was left gaping open-mouthed -- the duo backed off with their tails between their legs!

It was the one time I was happy I was rude.

Editor Dinesh Raheja.

Stardom = Sridevi

Reporter Anupama Chopra on what happened behind the scenes, adds further colour, "I remember meeting her [Sridevi] again at a photo-shoot for Movie magazine. It was my first job as a film journalist. Once again, we were at the Centaur, shooting her and Aamir Khan together for the cover. I remember whispering something to my editor Dinesh Raheja about how a certain pose or angle would look better. She noticed our interaction. She asked exactly what was wanted and then proceeded to deliver. I was gobsmacked. This, I concluded, is what stardom looks like!

Anupama Chopra

In Love with Sridevi

"I've been an absolutely huge fan of Sridevi. She was my number 1 favourite. I told Boney [Kapoor] fairly recently that when I was new in the industry, a magazine asked me to do a shoot with Sridevi. I can't tell you how nervous I was in my heart. I was so afraid that when I would come in front of her, she would understand in two seconds that this boy is in love with her. I was smitten, totally."

Aamir Khan

Sridevi and Aamir Khan on the cover of Mayapuri magazine, 1989

 

Sridevi and Aamir Khan on the cover of Mayapuri magazine, 1989

Aamir Khan with Sridevi, Jan 1989

This cover shoot with Sridevi and Aamir Khan was the hottest issue of the year - the year was 1989!

Aamir spoke about Sridevi in earlier post here.

In fact, you can read up on how this cover shoot came about when Sridevi, then age 26 and the undisputed Queen of Bollywood and 24-year-old Aamir Khan, who had just appeared in QSQT, came together for this scintillating cover shoot in the archives here.

Aamir Khan fans out over Sridevi

Trending online, the note from Aamir Khan regarding Sridevi and his fan boy moments.

Recently again, Aamir spoke about Sridevi calling her his favourite actress. He said, "I've been an absolutely huge fan of Sridevi. She was my number 1 favourite. I told Boney [Kapoor] fairly recently that when I was new in the industry, a magazine asked me to do a shoot with Sridevi. I can't tell you how nervous I was in my heart. I was so afraid that when I would come in front of her, she would understand in two seconds that this boy is in love with her. I was smitten, totally."

Aamir Khan with Sridevi

She was 26 and already the biggest (female) superstar in the country. Aamir Khan, then age 24, at the time had just one big release (QSQT!). MOVIE magazine had a new team and was going through a revamp. The editor, Dinesh Raheja, had the inspired idea to bring together a superstar and a rising one. What a coup and what a cover it was. These are some of the outtakes from that now iconic shoot.

Much brouhaha was made about the age difference - which is so minor that it seems ludicrous now. People were comparing filmography more than age differences - Sridevi, having acted since she was a child had done hundreds of movies by then whereas it was only Aamir's second film.  

As she laughed in an interview without revealing her age, 'I'm not so ancient!'. Sridevi always had a sense of humour about many transient things in life. Legend.

Famous fan: Aamir Khan: Sridevi's superfan Aamir quote

Aamir Khan professes his love for Sridevi once again.

 

Sridevi with Aamir Khan

In 1990, Sridevi was 26 and post-Chandni, the undisputed Queen of #Bollywood.. Aamir Khan was the rising young star, all of 25 with QSQT having just been released a year and a half ago. Movie magazine [editor Dinesh Raheja] brought the two together for a sensational cover shoot to relaunch the mag with its new, polished sheen and look. But experience (and possibly height!) meant that no producer thought of matching Sri and Aamir together on film. Aamir was only three films old (in sharp contrast) by 1990, Sridevi had already appeared in a whopping 41 Hindi films (we're not even counting her Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films!). Though Aamir was just a year younger than towering Sridevi, her larger-than-celluloid-life made her too big for him. A newbie and an established superstar. If only the two had done the Summer of 42 remake as a producer once tried... Sadly, it never came to be. However, the two remained staunch fans of the other... till her tragic passing in February 2018.

Getting Aamir Khan and Sridevi together... for a magazine cover shoot

How it happened... 

"...When I became the Editor of MOVIE magazine, I told Rakesh that I would like to bring Aamir Khan and Sridevi together for my first cover. He drove with me to both the stars and we made what seemed like impossible, possible. We shot some beautiful Sridevi and Dimple covers together and we worked on some amazing shoots for our annual issues, including one where we got director’s to shoot their favourite muses – Mukul Anand shot Sridevi, Dharmesh shot Karisma etc..."
-- Dinesh Raheja 

NOTE: We've 'borrowed'... oh all right, downright pilfered from Facebook, this Sridevi related post on the wall of writer/editor Dinesh Raheja. One of our favourite magazine editors/writers Dinesh Raheja (even though he's more of a Madhuri Dixit fan!)  did quite a few interviews with Sridevi and had her on the cover often (but not often enough...) of his film magazine. 

Raheja was one of the handful of scribes who elevated film journalism from the sophomoric (and often moronic) writing that people often found in film magz in the 1980s and early 1990s. With the death of MOVIE mag (the latest incarnation from UK is horrendous) and 'G' magazine (by the fabulous Bhawana Somaaya), both editors tried to amp up celebrity coverage beyond the 'Is he/she your boyfriend/girlfriend' tabloid sensationalism. They were hence a favourite of stars exhausted by the general stupidity of the half-wit reporters who asked inane questions and especially those who concocted stories. 

We used to follow Raheja on rediff and glad to know he's still writing about films from Mumbai through various channels. You can't keep a good man down!

See the entire shoot pic in the archive here of Aamir Khan with Sridevi. The only project they worked on together - despite his many attempts to get Sridevi to work on a film with him.