Sridevi in contrasting print and stripes look - and making it work.
While meeting the south press, Sridevi donned a power suit look to address one of the very few controversies surrounding her return to film. While promoting her film
Mom, Sridevi, in an interaction with NTV, said she was hurt by SS Rajamouli's comments and the reports about her remuneration were baseless.
On camera, she said in Telugu, "There are rumours that I asked about Rs 10-15 crore for the role, including an entire floor in a hotel and 10 flight tickets etc. I have been in the industry for about 50 years and acted in more than 300 films. Do you think I could have accomplished all of this by making such unreasonable demands?,"
"I saw a Rajamouli interview and I was shocked and hurt by it. I have heard about Rajamouli, he is a calm and dignified person. I have seen his movie
Eega and would have been very happy to work with him. He is a great technician
but the way he spoke about the issue made me feel very sad," she added.
Rajamouli, in an interview to a regional channel, went on the record saying that the team was 'lucky' that Sridevi rejected the offer to play Sivagami. And in a clip that went viral, laughed at the expense of Sridevi - a Telugu film icon and legend in her own right.
Fact of the matter is, Sridevi never met the director or the producers directly - whoever the third party person was, who acted as intermediary in the early stages of contracts and negotiations did not speak for Sridevi the actress. In fact, we have no idea till date WHO he spoke, who quoted the absurd figures and demands - but the blame fell on Sridevi. For the longest time, Sridevi did not speak about it, as she has been the subject of baseless rumours for years and lets it fall. However, she stated in a televised interview that Janhvi Kapoor showed her the YouTube clip of Rajamouli talking about Sridevi and it hurt her immensely. She held it together and spoke in Telugu to her Andhra audience and clarified. One of the few times she spoke up. Otherwise, Sridevi has been a non confrontational person for years.
For example, when Sridevi said, in an off-the-cuff remark that
Himmatwala could be remade as it was no
Mother India (A fact!), in support of Sajid Khan's (misguided-) venture and for the cast Ajay Devgan and Tammanah (both of who m Sridevi liked), somehow, the unemployed son of Jeetendra, Tusshar Kapoor spoke up. Now, instead of catching the bait for a media war, Sridevi, while speaking to Omar Qureshi, simply refused to utter a word against the son of her frequent colleague, someone who she had seen grow up in front of her.
Later, Rajamouli retracted his digs at Sridevi by stating he regretted saying what he did about Sridevi on a public platform. He should have clarified with her in person instead of commenting on speculation.
July 2017
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