Excerpts from Sridevi's biography, authorised by husband Boney Kapoor, reveal how she negotiated her way to become the only actress to bag a double role in a Big B film
MID-DAY (December 15, 2019)

The media now anointed her with another sobriquet. Female Bachchan. The label soon acquired a whole new meaning when Sridevi now decided to stop working with Amitabh. Filmfare showcased the actress on its November cover with the tag line—'Out of Reach?' In the same interview, Sridevi gave her reason why: 'I never said I won't work with Amit-ji. But then what's there for any artiste to do in a film starring him? He does everything himself.' But when producer Manoj Desai and director Mukul Anand conceived a magnum opus set in Afghanistan (Khuda Gawah), it begged the magnificence of Sridevi. Bachchan himself was in a fix on how to get the actress onboard, when an opportunity presented itself.

Those days it was customary for filmmakers to invite the industry and media and share rushes of their upcoming ventures. Boney Kapoor and Satish Kaushik held such an event where they screened Sridevi's outstanding performance in the number Dushman Dil Ka from Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja. Amitabh, present at this preview, was mesmerized. The next day, Bachchan sent a truckload of roses for Sridevi. Headlines exploded about how the biggest actor had paid tribute to the biggest actress. Filmfare brought out a cover story with the tagline—'How Amitabh Wooed Sridevi'. While Sridevi agreed in principle to star in the film, she laid down the condition that she would play both the roles of Amitabh's wife and daughter. This was unprecedented! Never had any heroine dared to demand a double role in a Bachchan film. But the actress knew her worth. The deal was struck.

As a child-artiste, Sridevi was witness to a co-child-actor's death:
Sridevi was witnessing incidents now that were leaving a mark on her tiny mind. In several interviews, she recounts watching a fellow child star pinched hard by his mother because he was required to cry for a scene. However, the most traumatic incident remains the one that occurred by a lake on a different shoot. Sridevi was in the water with twelve other children for a scene. As soon as the shot got over, everyone returned to the shore and changed into dry garments. Suddenly, someone noticed that one pair of clothes was still lying unworn on the grass, flapping gently in the breeze. As everyone stared, a terrifying silence engulfed them all. Realization dawned that one child had not made it back to the shore alive. In her 1988 chat with Stardust, the actress recounted: 'Everyone was frightened . . . the director sent a man to call the boy's mother immediately, while we waited anxiously. The scene that followed was horrible. The director began by telling her how her son had met with an accident. . . She pulled her hair, flung the flowers away, tore her sari, banged her fists and rolled on the ground crying . . . I don't think I'd ever forget that sight. Somehow, it has helped me grow up.'

When Sridevi was called the unwed mother...:
On 2 June 1996, Sridevi and Boney got quietly married at the Sai Baba temple in Shirdi. With Srilatha [sister] having reservations about their relationship and Boney already wedded to Mona Shourie, the couple kept their marriage under wraps. Consequently, for the longest time, the world remained oblivious to the fact that Boney and Sri had become man and wife. As a result, tabloids erupted in early 1997 with unfounded reports calling Sridevi an unwed mother, pregnant with Boney's child.

Excerpted with permission from Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess, written by Satyarth Nayak, published by Penguin Random House India

Divya Kaushik (BOMBAY TIMES; December 4, 2019)

She was an amazingly sensitive, supremely intuitive, loving, caring, funny, childlike superstar, but she was my very own Shashi” — that’s how director Gauri Shinde described Sridevi, as she struggled to choose words that could define the superstar. “It is very difficult to describe a person, an actor like Sridevi, in a few words,” added Gauri, who was speaking at a session at Times LitFest, in Delhi, which saw the unveiling of the book Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess by Satyarth Nayak. Gauri was a part of the session on Sridevi, which was also attended by Boney Kapoor with Deepika Padukone joining them on stage towards the end of the conversation.

MEETING SRIDEVI FOR THE FIRST TIME WAS LIKE GOING ON A BLIND DATE: GAURI SHINDE
Reminiscing about her first meeting with Sridevi, Gauri said that it was like going on a blind date. She shared with the audience, “My meeting with Sridevi for the first time was like going on a blind date as I had never met her before. I was nervous and looked at myself in the mirror to check whether I was looking decent. When I met her, I was strangely at ease. There was something so warm about her. She was just so normal, lovely and something connected immediately. I had this positive feeling that this date might go well. When I started narrating the script, throughout the narration, she was so instinctive, genuine and everything that I would have liked her to be. By the end of that first date, I had a feeling that both of us would want to go on our second date. There was instant chemistry, instant love and it was too special.”

Talking about the time when she was shooting English Vinglish, the movie in which Sridevi played the lead character of Shashi, Gauri said she fell in love with the way the actress would transform when in front of a camera. “I enjoyed the whole process of working with her. We got along so well, we understood each other so well. I think what connected us was our ability to express ourselves through anything but work. She had such a great sense of humour, which was why she could be so funny on screen. Through the working of this film, we had so many amusing moments that we laughed like little girls and when it was time for work, she would change so effortlessly and she was in her character. So, it was so fascinating to watch someone just transform in a few minutes from this smiling person in private to this diva on screen.”

‘I WAS PLANNING TO MAKE ANOTHER FILM WITH SRIDEVI’
When Gauri was asked about her favourite Sridevi film, she said that it would definitely be English Vinglish. “At the risk of sounding selfish, I would say that my favourite will always be Shashi from English Vinglish... for me that role has been special. Before that there have been so many of her films that I have liked, but when I miss her, I miss Shashi,” she said, adding, that she has been a huge fan of her movies like Sadma, Lamhe, Chandni, ChaalBaaz and Mr India. “She was the only female superstar and it makes me so happy that I could work with a woman who was a superstar,” said Gauri.

The filmmaker also said that she was planning another film with Sridevi. “I would have loved to make a film with her every month or every year, if it was possible, but for someone like her, you had to have an amazing subject, you had to do justice to a star that she was. Yes, I was planning something with her. In my head, she was always like a parallel track and I was always thinking what can I do with her and there was a plan, but before I could say pack up, she left and that’s unfortunate,” she said.

‘WHEN SRIDEVI ENTERED A FILM SET, SHE’D TOUCH THE GROUND’
Author Satyarth Nayak said, “Sridevi started acting when she was only four. The actress said in an interview that before every act, the director of her first film, would break a coconut and do aarti because she was playing Lord Murugan in it. So that stayed with her, the fact that the ground was like a temple, very sacred. So when Sridevi would enter a film set, she would touch the ground.”

MY LAST CONVERSATION WITH SRIDEVI WAS ABOUT STAFF ISSUES AT HOME: DEEPIKA PADUKONE
At the Times LitFest, Deepika Padukone said, “I feel extremely honoured that I got this opportunity to be here. Boney ji and Sridevi ma’am are my first champions. From the time I started my career in 2007, they would send me a personal message during the release of my every movie and I still have all those messages. Sridevi ma’am was someone I got really close to at a personal level, may be it was a south Indian connect. We connected so well that my last conversation with her was about staff issues at home. So, that was a kind of relationship we shared. She was a support in everything that I have done in my life, personally and professionally. She’ll always be missed.”