Brutally Basic Bollywood: Fabulous cook, accomplished painter Sridevi no more — Lesser known facts about the screen icon

Sridevi was a fabulous cook. She learnt how to cook after marriage with Boney Kapoor as she wanted to feed him at home. The passion for cooking grew and she loved to feed family and friends whenever she could.

She was an accomplished painter. When she was not shooting in her final years she spent time painting. One of her paintings was even auctioned at the famous Christie’s auction centre in London for charity.

Sridevi picked up fashion tips from her elder daughter Jahanvi who unfortunately was not with her at the time of her death in Dubai.

Sridevi was looking forward to Jhanvi’s debut film 'Dhadak' at the earliest. She had even told the 'Dhadak' producer Karan Johar that she must be among the first to see her daughter's film.

She shared an unspoken bond with Amitabh Bachchan. He tweeted a premonitory message hours before her death saying he was feeling a sense of panic. Sridevi had done films like 'Inquilaab' and 'Akhri Raasta' with AB. They were supposed to cast together once again in Yash Chopra’s 'Veera Zara'. But Sridevi couldn’t do the film due to her motherly commitments.

Sridevi lost her mother to an operable brain tumour. A medical team in the US operated on Sridevi’s mother. But they opened up the wrong side of her brain. This incident was used by director Shankar in the Tamil-Hindi film 'Jeans' starring Aishwarya Rai. Aishwarya's mom who gets wrongly operated was played by the Tamil legendary actress Laxmi.

Speaking of Laxmi, Sridevi played the senior actress' younger sister in the 1973 blockbuster 'Julie'. This was Sridevi's first appearance in a Hindi film.

In 'Aakhri Raasta', Sridevi’s dialogues were dubbed by none other than the 'Silsila' actress Rekha. How did that happen? Well, it’s a long story. Suffice it to say that Sridevi whose Tamil accent was considered too thick and her speaking voice too thin, started dubbing her lines with Yash Chopra’s Chandni.

Sridevi was not the first choice for Yash Chopra’s 'Chandni'. Years before Yash Chopra was supposed to make the film with Rekha in the title role.

R Balki wanted to cast Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi in an autumnal love story a la 'The Bridges Of Madison County'. I cant think of a more appropriate desi replacement for Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. Come to think of it, even Meryl wouldn’t be able to do the Charlie Chaplin skit in 'Mr India' or the 'Na Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai' singing-in-the-rain number in 'Chaalbaaz'. Admit it, she was one of her kind.

(Subhash K Jha is a film critic and movie expert)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)