Profile

Recognition:

• In her career, Sridevi has won five Filmfare Awards among numerous other awards and accolades.

• In 2013, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour. She was also voted 'India's Greatest Actress in 100 Years' in a CNN-IBN national poll conducted in 2013 on the occasion of the Centenary of Indian Cinema.

Interesting facts:

• Sridevi’s father was a lawyer. She has a sister and two step brothers. She married Boney Kapoor, a film producer and the elder brother of actors Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor in 1996. They have two daughters, Janhavi and Khushi.

• The actress has worked in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada films. She made her Bollywood debut as a child artiste in the hit Julie (1975) and played her first adult role at age 13 in a Tamil film the following year. Subsequently, she established herself as one of the leading actresses of Tamil and Telugu cinema.

• In Bollywood, she made her debut as a lead actress in Solva Sawan (1978) and gained wide public attention with the movie Himmatwala (1983). She appeared in a string of commercially successful movies thereafter and also received critical acclaim for movies such as Sadma (1983), Nagina (1986), ChaalBaaz (1989), Lamhe (1991), Khuda Gawah (1992), Gumrah (1993), Laadla (1994) and Judaai (1997).

• Sridevi’s Himmatwala (1983) opposite Jeetendra became one of the biggest blockbusters of the year. Her dance number Nainon Mein Sapna from the movie became a rage. The following year Tohfa released and turned out to be the biggest hit of 1984. The films established Sridevi as one of the leading actress of Bollywood.

• In 1986, came the snake fantasy Nagina which saw Sridevi play a shape-shifting woman. The film turned out to be the second biggest blockbuster of the year. Her climax dance number Main Teri Dushman also remains one of the best snake dances in Bollywood.

• Sridevi followed the success by playing a goofy crime journalist in the 1987 film Mr. India which became one of the highest grossing hits of the year. The dance number Hawa Hawai in the film also became a popular nickname for the actress. She also gave Hindi cinema one of its most iconic rain songs, Kaate Nahin Kat Te.

• Sridevi played the title role in Chandni that emerged as one of the biggest blockbusters of the year. Her style in the movie was copied by many while her dance song Mere Haathon main Nau Nau Chooriyan became immensely popular. The film also reaffirmed Sridevi’s position as the top female star of the 1980s and her dominance over her contemporaries Jaya Prada and Meenakshi Sheshadri.

• Sridevi is famous for being the only actress who at the peak of her career, refused films opposite Amitabh Bachchan since she was more keen to do heroine oriented roles.

• The last major film Sridevi starred in before she took a break from the industry was Judaai which won Sridevi her eighth Filmfare nomination for Best Actress.

• In 2012, Sridevi returned to films after a 15-year-long hiatus with English Vinglish and became the only actress in the history of Hindi and Tamil cinema to make a highly successful comeback.