Sridevi has always won hearts with her performances - be it as the titular Chandini in the 1989 film or as the twins Anju and Manju in ChaalBaaz that released the same year. And it was not just her beauty that made her popular. Born as Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan on August 13, 1963, Sridevi is often called the first female superstar of Indian cinema.
She conquered hearts with her work in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada. Since her debut in the 1967 Tamil film Kandhan Karunai at the age of four, Sridevi worked in several films as a child artiste before she was cast as an adult in 1976 at just age 13, in the Tamil film Moondru Mudichu. She soon established herself as a leading star in south Indian films, standing out in films like Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari, Kshana Kshanam, 16 Vayathinile and Meendum Kokila.
She was busy and sought after there but life had other plans. Sridevi was cast by Bharathiraja in the Hindi remake of 16 Vayathinile titled Solva Sawan in 1979. But it was K Raghavendra Rao’s 1983 Himmatwala, the Hindi remake of Ooruki Monagadu, that brought her recognition.
Since then, Sridevi became known not just for her looks or fashion sense but also for her acting chops. She took up film after film in various languages, proving her worth, moving far ahead of her contemporaries. Following a hiatus after Janhvi Kapoor’s birth and her marriage to Boney Kapoor, Sridevi returned to acting with the sitcom Malini Iyer in 2004, followed by the comedy film English Vinglish in 2012.
Unfortunately, the woman who often played an apsara on screen would prove to be a mortal like everyone else. In 2018, she died due to an accidental drowning in a bathtub in Dubai. The 2017 thriller Mom remains her final film.
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