When Sridevi went back to Bollywood - exclusive 2012 interview with the superstar and her film industry fans
Fifteen years after she stepped out of the spotlight to focus on her family, Indian film star Sridevi, who died on February 24, 2018, returned with a new movie
Queen, housewife, journalist, nurse, mystical snake-woman, princess, bandit, goddess, secretary, mad woman, fallen angel, police officer, drug addict, wannabe pop star, dancer, singer, embittered first wife, chief executive, Afghan tribal leader, falsely implicated drug smuggler and streetwalker - Sridevi has been them all.
Star of more than 200 Indian films (in five languages) and a member of the haloed pantheon of Bollywood celebrities, Sridevi is a larger-than-life figure. She had done it all on-screen by the age of 34. With beguiling, sari-clad ease, she'd sung and danced, grieved and raged and cried and laughed on the big screen. As a child star - she won her first award before she was a teen - to a leading lady and screen icon, her cinematic journey was marked with box-office triumph, record-making pay cheques and trophies galore.
Then she took a break - for 15 years.
down her cheek and a quivering smile, Sridevi faced a 10-minute standing ovation after the premiere of her comeback film, English Vinglish, at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 14. At the event, her Sabyasachi Mukherjee sari ranked her alongside best-dressed celebrities Zac Efron, Penelope Cruz and Monica Bellucci - and that was before she brought her most potent weapons to bear.
"Those eyes - when she looks at you, you sort of get lost," says writer and director Gauri Shinde, who yanked Sridevi out of her self-imposed retirement. "As a woman, I [was affected], I can't imagine what it does to men.
"Meeting Sridevi the first time was surreal. Is this true? Is this happening? I felt like I was in the middle of Requiem for a Dream, not sure what was real and unreal. I sat there and just watched her. And she looks like a diva-movie star in her natural state. She was at home in blue jeans and a shirt. She had no make-up on, her youngest daughter was running around. She has this lovely, luminous skin and the most gorgeous, heart-breaking eyes …"