Stop the press: Stop the world: 24 February 2018: Sridevi breaks India's heart

The day our world stopped: Sridevi made headlines the world over on 25 February 2018... as it was announced in the unearthly hours of the 24th (Feb 2018), Sridevi had tragically, shockingly, unexpectedly died in Dubai. 

We heard the news on Instagram first - and didn't believe it. And then, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi himself, posted on Twitter, his condolence message to the family and fans of Sridevi. And the truth sunk in. 

That week, our humble fan blog saw the statistics sky rocket to 4million views per day - and we were averaging about 4,000 views per week before that. 

We had several news sites and blogs directly lift copy and images - only New York Times' incredible fact checkers and sub-editors reached out to go over a few questions. Now, I'm not even remotely connected to 'the great Sridevi' and know next to nothing about her personal life, but her career, well, obviously we are quasi-encyclopedic on that front as we've been working on the Sridevi fan site for nearly 26 years. 

The books on Sridevi have used us for reference, one shamelessly lifted copy, the latest Sridevi book by Dhiraj Kumar looks... insipid, derivative and reductive} three words he'll be forced to look up and draw his own conclusions. 

As ai-images take over social media, where we boldly predict that unless there's some sort of governance, control and protection of rights to an artist's identity and likeness, there will be more fake pics online than real,, we'll be posting real vs fake pics side by side to let new gen know, what you see online is fake. 

A generative AI image of supposed-to-be
Sridevi and Janhvi Kapoor

The intentions might be harmless, perhaps even good, but the consequences have not been fully fledged out, thought of. And its dire. 

Sridevi... wherever you are, we hope you're at peace. There will never be another Sridevi in this world or the next. She was beyond compare and remains a complete enigma. 

The Great Sridevi. 

Prayers held in honour of Sridevi's death anniversary earlier today

Prayers held in honour of Sridevi's death anniversary earlier today... 

 

Third Death Anniversary of Sridevi: Images of the Indian actress trending today

 

Remembering Sridevi on her death anniversary: Sridevi's children post on Social Media

 

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Sridevi's Prayer Meet in 2020, marking two years

Marking Sridevi's second death anniversary, a prayer meet was held in Chennai earlier today [March 4, 2020], attended by Boney Kapoor, eldest daughter Janhvi Kapoor [youngest Khushi was in America studying], family and friends.

Above: Janhvi Kapoor and Maheshwari 

For fans who didn't understand as Sridevi passed on Feb 24th, the ritual was held as per the Hindu calendar and customs .

Sridevi's relatives were all there remembering the late, great actress. Janhvi Kapoor on her instagram released some of these rarely seen pictures of Sridevi; Sridevi as a child and a rare picture of Boney Kapoor and Sridevi soon after they got married.

Remembering Sridevi. Daily.

Exactly two years ago, while scrolling over Instagram, we saw the first newsbyte... it was a picture of Hrithik Roshan with Sridevi and the caption simply read RIP. Didn't believe it for a second - fake celebrity death news is rampant online - and does not require much attention. Then... the news started spreading, from flint to wildfire. Finally, at the pit of my stomach, the message hit home when the President of India and the Prime Minister posted condolence messages on their official social media accounts on Twitter. Sridevi was no more.

It was a fully working weekend of updating only verified news on the Sridevi Facebook fanpage, keeping conspiracies at bay, false news on hold, reporting on what seemed to have some semblance of truth. The biggest news networks stated that Sridevi died of cardiac arrest - which seemed plausible (after all, heart disease is the leading cause of death for women, one in every five female deaths, irrespective of age). Much later, it was confirmed that Sridevi died of "accidental drowning" on 24 Februarly, 2018.

The floodgate of false news went berserk that weekend - where even the biggest stars, legends, co-stars and any sane thinking person - begged the rabid Indian media to "let Sridevi rest in peace".

We got a message from New York Times to confirm a few details about Sridevi, we went back and forth on one issue, namely... well, her name; I had to state that though it is widely purported that Sridevi was born "Shree Amma Iyengar" we have NO CONFIRMED or verified attribution to that. As far as we know, Sridevi was born "Ayyappan Sreedevi", which distilled down to her mononymous legend as "Sridevi".

Everything else is a blur. What remains in memory is the misreporting and the character assasination the Kapoor family went through that entire period. One of the most shocking clips that floats online is the video of "Sridevi's uncle" speaking to the press - when the man is of no relation to Sridevi what so ever. It's laughable that the network did not vet the interviewee or do basic background check. Especially the defamatory **** the man said about Sridevi and her family.

Here we are 24 months after Sridevi's untimely death and we still cannot fathom the world no longer has the corporeal, ethereal Sridevi.

Like a benign masochist, we go over newsbytes from that fateful weekend in shock and awe. Pure disbelief that still haunts us daily. How fate intervened and closed the book while we were still mid-way on her chapter...

RIP Sridevi - wherever you are...