Sridevi's straw hat: MOVIE magazine cover shoot outtakes

Sridevi's straw hat: from Sept 1991, MOVIE magazine cover shoot outtakes. Shot by Sridevi's favourite photographer and long-time collaborator Rakesh Shreshta, the cover shoot and cover story ran just days before the release of the highly anticipated Yash Chopra epic Lamhe. 

RELATED FEATURES

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• Sridevi's straw hat image series here and here.
• Sridevi in MOVIE magazine over the years here.
• Sridevi's shoots with Rakesh Shreshta here.

Sridevi answers fan questions: MOVIE magazine's heartline to Sridevi: Sept 91

Fans got to ask questions to Sridevi via MOVIE magazine's initiative to connect stars with their most ardent admirers! And Sridevi answered! A throwback to September 1991, when Sridevi was on the sets of Lamhe.

Heartline to Sridevi

The Queen Bee wasn't exactly swatting flies when I met her on the sets of Yash Chopra's Lamhe. 

Breathlessly sweating it out for a dance (a take off on the Flashdance climax number - set, music, dance et al) she also had top-notch producers dancing attendance to her, in between takes, armed with bulging bags of notes to lure her into their films. 

Yet Sridevi squeezed in time whenever she could for MOVIE readers. For your sake - dear readers- I trailed her form the make-up room to the sets, even plonking myself next to her on stage in the field of the camera! When the lights came on and Yashji shouted, 'Star sound,' I had to actually run with my pad. I almost got shot you know. 

Readers write in to question, the one and only, Sridevi. 

Q: Have you ever had to spend an entire movie walking in a specially constructed ditch, just because you happened to be taller than the hero? 

Rajeshwari Singh, New Delhi

Sridevi: (Giggling). No, I haven't had to walk in a ditch but I have had to take off my chappals and heels throughout one film because my hero was short. I won't name him because he'll feel bad then. I also remember, whenever we had a scene together, I had to bend my knees so that I didn't appear taller. 

[Edit: Rishi Kapoor in Chandni?] 

Q: When you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, which sister from Chaalbaaz do you see? Understanding that both characters were extreme archetypes, do you identify personally more with one or the other, or with both? 

David Bragdon, USA

Sridevi: As you've said they're archetypes. I'm definitely not 100 percent of either. I'll never pick a fist fight with anybody nor am I the type to let anybody walk all over me without a murmur of protest. Actually, it all depends on the situation. I may have to be one or the other. 

Q: I think you are just right for teeny bopper roles. Now that you're already doing two films with Salman, is a film with Aamir on the cards next? 

Gaurav Dwivedi, Lucknow

Sridevi: The only time I have co-starred with Aamir has been for the MOVIE cover. But on screen you may see us together somehow. There is nothing in the pipeline right now, but there are no objections from my side. 

Q: Nagma is unabashed about being your clone. She says she doesn't mind being in your shadow. Are you promoting her?

Karishma, Delhi.

Sridevi: I'm not promoting her. I worked in her father's production, Aulaad, and she grew close to me then. But I wasn't even aware of the fact that she had joined films after that. I got to know only when she came and told me about it some months back. But you mustn't keep comparing her with me. It's not good for her. 

Q: You are an enormously accomplished dancer. And you are acknowledged as a leading actress. The combination of these two distinct disciplines is what distinguishes you as India's first lady of entertainment. Which vocation occupies pre-eminent place in  your heart? For you, is cinema merely a stage for dance, or is dance merely an element of cinema?

David Bragdon, USA 

Sridevi: There are no two ways about it - I love acting from the bottom of my heart. I started working in films when I was only five. And for me, cinema will always be more important than just dancing. I started dancing because I was in films and over the years have grown to love it too. 

Q: What would you do if you find a fan of yours threatens to fast to death unless you marry him? 

Pradeep Jain, Calcutta

Sridevi: Nothing like that has ever happened before. Don't give them ideas now.

Q: You have the greatest career going in Bollywood. Can't you now take the risk of doing a negative role?

Rajesh, Cochin. 

Sridevi: Why do you want to spoil my career? (Upon being reminded of Meena Kumari's complex role in Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam) Oh, I'd love to do it. Thanks for the idea. 

Q: In film magazines you come across as a dumb, quiet and reserved person. but when I see you on screen I feel you really have a whale of a time playing an extrovert. I also get a feeling you handle your roles intelligently - with perception. Which is the real you?

Sunil Desai, Bombay

Sridevi: Now you can't expect me to say 'I'm intelligent' or 'I'm not dumb'. That's for other people to decide. As for being quiet and reserved, I've never had problems relating with people. People even call me a child-like, but I have never had difficulties facing the adult world. but one thing is true. I'm close to very few people. 

Q: How come there are such few films starring you being released and that too so infrequently?

Parag Shah, Bombay

Sridevi: It's not that I planned it this way - it just happened. So many of my films have got delayed and that caused this drought. But even in the future, I don't want to do too many films. Just a few films each year - but all should be good. 

Q: Suppose you had been in the film industry in the 1950s or the '60s. Do you think, pitted against heroines, the caliber of Meena Kumari, Vyjayanthimala etc, you would have been able to achieve this number one position?

Abdul Waheed, Kenya

Sridevi: The competition is as stiff today. It's not as if the other girls are all bad. So if you are capable of reaching the top today, you can do so anytime. 

Rajeshwari wins 10 audio cassettes and David wins 4 audio cassettes of Super Cassettes. 

Published in MOVIE magazine, September, 1991

Sridevi: Boho chic: Straw hats, tie-dye shirt: Photographer Rakesh Shreshta's favourite muse shines

Sridevi - outtake from her MOVIE magazine cover shoot. So cute. Shot by Rakesh Shreshta 

Cover feature and shoot for  Movie magazine in September 1991. See the entire series of images here.

G magazine cover: Amitabh Bachchan with Sridevi, Jackie Shroff with Meenakshi Sheshadiri, Salman Khan with Madhuri Dixit

Another year, another cover. Sridevi leads the pack with Amitabh Bachchan.

September 1991 cover of g magazine.

For more pics of Sridevi with Amitabh Bachchan from this shoot, see earlier post. The same shot was used in other magazines too.

Shot by the great Rakesh Shreshta 

Stardust Sept 1991: Sensational! Sri's summer of 42 with Salman!

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Sensational! 
Sri and Salman: Summer of 42

Sridevi and Salman Khan! A great match by any standards. She is the uncrowned queen of Tinsel Town after all; and he the prince of super-stardom awaiting coronation. It had to be a regal union of the two.

Professionally, they are hot stuff in their respectively carved niches. Together they are bound to start a forest fire. And that’s exactly what the things are leading to. Except that we are not talking professionally any more. The fire of passion is that much hotter and inextinguishable you know.


Sridevi and Salman Khan?!! Hard to believe, is it bit? But true nevertheless. And then again, passion is non-discriminating with those it chooses to overwhelm it its throes. Can’t blame the two then if they are mere pawns in the hands of fate. Swept along to a common destiny!

Apparently it began when the two of them were together as part of the troupe for Amitabh Bachchans’ London show. There the spark was struck. And it did not die out like a normal overseas attraction is wont to. It merely dimmed to a glow, waiting the bursting into flames back home.

But what surprised everybody was the fact that Sridevi was signed by Sawan Kumar Tak for his next film Chand Ka Tukda. And this after the Tak had launched and executed a nationwide hunt for a nubile young girl to do the role. Supposedly, it was at Salman’s insistence that the Sri was signed. With his mainstay hero having made such a request, Sawan Kumar was in no position to turn him down.

He did owe it to Salman for giving him the super duper Sanam Bewafa, after all. So he signed Sri on at once. Of course, the wily Tak did issue statements immediately that despite his search, he could not find a Chand ka Tukda good enough to match his hero. That is why he opted for Sridevi who was the ‘best Chand ka Tukda in the country. And she looks so good and sixteen only.’

"SRIDEVI WAS THE BEST CHAND KA TUKDA IN THE COUNTRY. AND SHE LOOKS SO GOOD AND SIXTEEN ONLY."

So desperate is the need to be together that Salman has even adjusted the dates of an entire outdoor schedule, only to be able to be with his new attraction. In October this year, Sridevi will be flying to Nepal as part of the unit of Khuda Gawah to shoot there. In the same month and at the same time Salman Khan too will be flying there to shoot for Bulund (of which he is the de facto script writer and supreme shot-caller). The buzz has it that the dates were changed of Salman’s film only so he could be in the hilly and picturesque country with the woman he now dotes on. And the biggest clue is that the units of both the films will be housed in the very same five star hotel. It simplifies the rocky path of romance so much, doesn’t it?

From Stardust.com

Excerpts from Stardust, September 1991

Photography by Gautam Rajadhyaksha.

NOTE: 

Gossip columns ran rampant in Bollywood in the early days - as anything without merit or fact check ran amuck. Why verify when gossip sells faster than actual news? News didn't have to be factual, it had to be interesting. It just had to sell. 

Not much has changed since then - till date.