Sridevi death anniversary: Remembering the first female superstar of Bollywood

Starting at young age

She was one of the very few actresses to have completed half a century in Bollywood. Sridevi worked in more than 300 films. As a child artiste, she first appeared on the silver screen at the age of four. Born as Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan, she adopted the name Sreedevi for her screen avatar.

The real name

Born as Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan, she adopted the name Sreedevi for her screen avatar. She actually spelt her name as Sreedevi, but due to a mistake in the poster of a film, her name Sridevi continued as a spelling error till the day she breathed her last.

Sridevi with Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan

At the mere age of 13, Sridevi played a stepmother to Rajinikanth in the film 'Moondru Mudichu' (1976). In the Tamil film industry, Sridevi did the most number of films with actor Kamal Haasan.

The actress in ‘ChaalBaaz’

Sridevi was an epitome of professionalism. She once shot with 103-degree fever for a song sequence 'Na Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai' for the film 'ChaalBaaz' (1989) which also starred Rajinikanth and Sunny Deol. Looking at the final output, will anyone ever say that she was having such high fever that day during the shoot?

Sridevi and Rekha

Since a lot of South Indian actresses were not proficient in the Hindi language at that time, Rekha dubbed for Sridevi in 'Aakhree Raasta'. Apart from Rekha, former actress Naaz also dubbed for Sridevi in some films.

Receiving Filmfare Award

Sridevi worked in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films and also won 5 Filmfare Awards for Best Actress in a leading role.

When she refused an offer from Hollywood

In 1993, Steven Spielberg approached Sridevi for a small role in his film 'Jurassic Park'. Sridevi was at the peak of her film career then. Yet she refused the Hollywood offer. She felt that the character did not offer justice to her acting status in India.

With Anil Kapoor in ‘Laadla’

In 1994, Sridevi replaced Divya Bharati for the film 'Laadla'. Coincidentally the actress died a day before the birth anniversary of Divya Bharati.

The actress with her family

Sridevi named her daughters Janhvi and Khushi after the names of characters from her husband Boney Kapoor's films, 'Judaai' and 'Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai'.

Honored with the Padma Shri

Sridevi was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2013 - the fourth highest civilian award from the Government of India.

Sridevi’s death

Sridevi was attending Mohit Marwah's wedding in Dubai with her husband Boney Kapoor and daughter Khushi Kapoor. On February 24, 2018, the veteran actress left for her heavenly abode.