Luminescent in white: Gorgeous Sridevi in Aakhari Poratam (1988)

 Luminescent in white: Gorgeous Sridevi in Aakhari Poratam (1988)

Fresh off the massive success of Mr.India, this was one of Sridevi's mega hits in Telugu, released on 12 March 1988. Though the film had Nagarjuna and Suhasini, Sri was the superstar by far. According to features, Suhasini stated that despite all her massive fame and stardom, Sridevi was perfectly normal off screen and encouraged her, the niece of Kamal Haasan, to work in front of the camera - when originally Suhasini was planning to head into film production and direction. The lovely now-Mrs Mani Ratnam managed to do both well; star in films and produce/direct them. 

Sridevi and Anil Kapoor in Star & Style Awards Issue

Sridevi and Anil Kapoor winning awards for the now defunct Star & Style magazine. Way back in the 1980s, film magazines were doing their own award shows and functions. There are now Stardust awards, Filmfare awards, Zee awards (remember there was a Z magazine for a few years?!) on occasion even Cine Blitz awards! Filmfare has lasted the longest but like all award-shows in India, is in desperate need for a revamp, accountability, transparency and legitimacy.

Anyhoo, this is the team of Mr India winning all the major awards for Star and Style in early 1988 with a record clean sweep; Best Actress Sridevi, Best Actor Anil Kapoor, best film Boney Kapoor and Best Director Shekhar Kapur.

There were no surprises as Mr India was the (second-) biggest hit of 1987 (Hukumat was a bigger hit and some say even Khudgarz was; but neither film is as well remembered as Mr.India).

Rare pic of Sunita Kapoor and Anil Kapoor with Sridevi at the party.

Like the Golden Globes they had a separate award system for television and film.

March 11-24, 1988 cover: