She shot her first film as a four-year-old (in Kandan Karunai, 1967). Then, a chance meeting with the famous Kannada poet Kaviarasar was how Sridevi was cast as child Lord Muruga in Devar’s (Sandow M.M.A. Chinnappa Thevar) film Thunaivan. Half-a-century later, on July 7, Sridevi will be back in theatres with her 300th film — Mom. Talk about milestones!
t2oS met the Bollywood legend in her gorgeous Lokhandwala apartment in Mumbai weeks before the release of the intense drama around a mother-daughter relationship. Directed by debutant Ravi Udyawar, the film also stars Akshaye Khanna and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Dressed in all black, right down to her nail polish and cat-eye glasses, the 53-year-old was charm personified. Before we sat down to talk, she made sure I had an XL cup of green tea by my side. “Let the tea bag seep a little longer,” she quietly suggested when she spotted me reaching for the cup.
At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, I have to confess that in that one moment Sridevi sounded like a mom. Not surprising, though. Of the hundreds of roles she has played over the years, being a mother is one that she’s enjoyed most. “My daughters (Jhanvi, 20, and Khushi, 16) are my life. I would like to believe that I am a good mother. I am neither very strict, nor do I pamper them.”
Excerpts from our chat….
Mom and me
It’s been five years since English Vinglish. After that I got busy with the kids and travelling with my family. I was in no hurry to sign another film. I was on a holiday when my husband (Boney Kapoor) heard the story for Mom. The story really moved me. It took him six-seven months to put everything together.
One of my main criteria for doing a film is whether the audience would be able to identify with a character. Mom fulfilled that and also the subject is very relevant.
I was very closely involved in the film’s casting. We always wanted Nawaz for the role. He is a great actor and an absolute delight to work with. Same goes for Akshaye. He doesn’t do too many films and I couldn’t imagine anyone else in his role. I am so glad he agreed to do this one.
SRIDEVI PICKS HER BOLLY TOP 10 FOR T2OS
Movies of My Life
Sadma (1983)
Balu Mahendra (director) came to my house to narrate this film. That narration lasted exactly three hours. He narrated with full music and dialogues. As he was narrating, I could visualise the whole film. It’s one of the best narrations I have ever sat through. We spent a month shooting in Bangalore. Balu Mahendra didn’t want me to wear any make-up in the film; he wanted a very fresh look. He would make me wash my face every few hours. In those days, Kamal Haasan was very health conscious and I wasn’t. So, in the evenings Kamal, his (then) wife and I would go for a jog.
Himmatwala (1983)
This was my first big hit in Hindi. I didn’t know the language. I felt like a fish out of water. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying. Everyone was very sweet to me but I was very uncomfortable. Every day I would tell myself that I will do this one Hindi film and then I’ll go back to my Tamil and Telugu films.... I just never thought that I would get so much love and respect.
Nagina (1986)
Contact lens was fairly new in those days. The lenses that we got were really hard. They hurt my eyes so much that I told the director (Harmesh Malhotra) that I couldn’t wear them any longer. But I had no choice. He wanted me to have light eyes and so I wore those hard lenses through the film. There were days when they would make my eyes bleed. I went through hell shooting that film. We shot the climax in RK Studio in Mumbai and it was one of the funniest shooting experiences I have ever had. We were shooting the climax song. Harmesh Malhotra told Saroj Khan that they were going to break down the set in a day’s time, so we had to shoot quickly. So, we would be shooting on one side and they’d dismantle the other side of the set! It was a race against time. For the last few takes, we had just a tiny portion of a wall remaining but we didn’t give up. Saroj and I were like two women possessed that day!
Mr. India (1987)
This was the first Hindi film when people realised that I could act. Before Mr. India, I had done films like Himmatwala and Mawaali. Mr. India gave my career a different path. My character had a lot of variations and I really enjoyed playing Seema. My fans still remember the Charlie Chaplin scene and songs like Hawa Hawaii and Kaate nahin kat te. I grew up loving Charlie Chaplin and when Shekhar (Kapur, director) told me that I had to do a scene like Chaplin, it was a dream come true. It was supposed to be a small scene but once we started shooting, and Shekhar saw the reaction of everyone on the set, we ended up shooting it for 10 days!
Chandni (1989)
Yashji (Yash Chopra) was one of my favourite directors. He was just so sweet. I still miss him. His thoughts and energy didn’t match his age. One day when we were shooting the film, out of the blue he said: ‘Sri, you sing a song in this film.’ I immediately refused. I told him I can’t sing. He insisted a lot, so I finally gave in. After he heard me rehearsing, he realised that he had made a mistake. So he said he didn’t want me to sing. But I was adamant. I told him that I was going to record the song (laughs). Poor thing! Luckily for us the song (Chandni o meri Chandni) was a hit. That was my first and last attempt at singing in public.
ChaalBaaz (1989)
Pankaj (Parashar, director) was lots of fun to work with. He was really cool and calm throughout the shoot. We shot this film in Chennai, which was the best thing! I got to eat ghar ka khana. I had so much fun playing Manju and Anju. We improvised so much. I remember Pankaj would only write the beginning of a scene and the rest was up to us actors.
Lamhe (1991)
I played both mother and daughter in this film. I lost my father during the shoot of this film. We were in Switzerland and I used to speak with my father every morning before the shoot. One day I spoke with him and went for the shoot. During lunch, I was told that the shoot was cancelled and that Yashji and Pam (Pamela Chopra) auntie were calling me. They told me that my father was not well and that tickets for me to return were booked. I didn’t believe them because I had spoken to my father just hours earlier. It was only when I reached Chennai that I got to know that my father had passed away. The whole unit was waiting for me to return to Switzerland, so I had to go back soon after. That was a tough shoot.
English Vinglish (2012)
This will always be a very special film for me because it started my second innings in films. Balki is a close friend of Boneyji and he told us about this film that his wife (Gauri Shinde) wanted to make. The moment I heard the story, I wanted to be a part of it. I used my aunt as an inspiration for the look of the character. The cotton saris, the handbag and the choti are all exactly like hers.
Judaai (1997)
The character I played was unbelievable. She sells her husband to another woman for money! My challenge was not only to make her believable but also to have the audience feel bad for her! I think I managed to do that, because the film worked.
Khuda Gawah (1992)
This was another film in which I played both mother and daughter. They were shooting the film in Afghanistan. I didn’t want to go because I had just lost my father and I wanted to stay in Chennai with my mother. It was very kind of late Mukul Anand to accommodate my request. They shot portions with my duplicate and then moved my shoot to Jomsom (in Nepal). We could shoot there only from 6am to noon, it was so windy.
I am a reasonable mom
The kind of mother I am depends on my kids’ behaviour on a particular day. I could be strict or be a joker, but it is all in their hands. If they get up early, eat their meals on time and do everything properly then I am fine. I can be relaxed. Otherwise I have to be strict. But I am not very strict. I think I am quite reasonable (laughs).
I am also a friend to my daughters. They share everything with me. If I have to go for an event, they help me decide what to wear. We enjoy shopping together. They keep me informed about what’s in or what works for me. There are times when Boneyji also wants to get involved (laughs). He likes to be a part of everything we do.
Fitness is something that we have in common though I have to confess that I learn new things from them. They are very health conscious and sometimes they overdo it and then I have to be strict again. My elder one works out too much. She has enrolled herself in too many classes. She has her dinner at 6.30, so it’s really difficult for the whole family to go out for dinner. My husband comes home late, so we can only go out after that. I get stuck between them. I have to then strike a deal with all of them so that we can go out at 8.30!
His wife, his heroine
Luckily for us, Boneyji and I are quite alike. Our aesthetics and the kind of stories we like are similar. Of course, there are times when we fight. I’d like to think that our ‘work’ fights are healthy. Both of us compromise and reach a consensus.
Just earlier today we were talking about something and when we finished that discussion I said to him, ‘And now I am talking to you as your film’s heroine…’ (laughs). When it comes to work matters, I treat him as a producer but I don’t know about him. I think he only sees me as his wife.
You see a Meryl Streep
Hollywood doesn’t look at an actress’s age. You see a Helen Mirren or Meryl Streep work there. It’s unfortunate that we aren’t in Hollywood. But I feel like things are changing here. The writers are writing different stories and producers are ready to take a chance.
Four shifts a day
I have very vague memories of my early films. Sometimes I come across a film of mine on TV in which I was a child star and I hardly recognise myself. I don’t like watching my old films, so I immediately change the channel! My husband, on the other hand, loves to watch my films. It’s quite funny because I would want to change the channel and he won’t let me. My daughters haven’t seen a lot of my old films.
At the peak of my career, I used to do four shifts a day. I would shoot one film from 7am to 11am, the next from 11am to 3.30pm, then 4.30pm to 6pm and the last shift was from 6pm to 11pm. Now it’s impossible to get an actor to work so much or even do so many films at the same time. We were just running from one set to another. There were times when I wouldn’t remember the name of the film I was shooting!
The industry has changed so much. We now have vanity vans and monitors to see every shot. Also, there is so much attention being paid to continuity. In those days, an assistant director would draw an artiste’s last moment in a scene. If my right hand was up in one shot, there was no way to remember its placement in the next shot. Many times, the assistant would get it wrong and I would have to tell them.
To Jhanvi: No pain, no gain
I didn’t want Jhanvi to become an actor. When my daughters were growing up, I didn’t show them any of my films. I was in a completely different zone when they were small. I thought I was far enough from the industry. We only watched cartoons in their childhood years. I wanted to keep them away from Hindi films as much as possible. It turned out to be quite an impossible task as my husband is a producer.
Even before she told me that she is interested in becoming an actress, I had sensed it. I tried diverting her attention to other things. I told her that she needed to finish her education first. But I saw that she was very passionate about acting. As a parent, I realised that I should encourage her to follow her dream. I don’t want her to regret not giving acting a shot or that her mother didn’t encourage her. I remember a friend’s daughter who wanted to act but she was pressured into leading a married life. She always blamed her parents. This incident really scared me and I don’t want that for my daughters ever.
I want my daughter to know that acting is no cakewalk. No pain, no gain has always been my motto. When the time is right the announcement would be made about her debut film.
It really worries me that my daughters are considered celebrities on social media even before they have joined the film industry. They have lost their freedom. They get clicked everywhere they go.
