Sridevi's body reaches Mumbai from Dubai, cremation tomorrow

MUMBAI: Sridevi – the iconic Indian actress and the first female superstar of Bollywood - will be cremated today, four days after she dies in her hotel room in Dubai.

The untimely demise of the beloved actress had plunged the entire nation and millions of her fans worldwide in a state of shock and disbelief.  

She died of ''drowning in the bathtub'' of room number 2201 of Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel after ''loss of consciousness'', the Dubai Police on Monday had said after the an autopsy.

The case of Sridevi's death was then referred to the Dubai Public Prosecution for further investigation. The Dubai Prosecution Office, after completing its investigation into the case, today allowed her family to take her body back to India on Tuesday evening.

Her body was brought to India by a private aircraft owned by industrialist Anil Ambani. The jet arrived at around 9:30 pm at the Mumbai International Airport. Her body was then taken to her husband Boney Kapoor's Lokhandwala residence.

Her body will be taken to Celebration Sports Club Garden No 5, Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri West, around 9:30 am for people to pay their respects.

Her final journey will begin at 2 pm from Celebration Sports Club to Pawan Hans, and the last rites will be performed at the Vile Parle Seva Samaj Crematorium and Hindu Cemetery.

Sridevi was in Ras Al Khaimah in UAE last week, along with husband Boney Kapoor, younger daughter Khushi and other relatives to attend nephew Mohit Marwah’s wedding ceremony.

She had posted pictures of her family from the ceremony just a few days before she passed away.

Born in Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu on August 13, 1963, Sridevi began her career at the age of four in the devotional film Thunaivan in which she played Lord Murugan.

Besides Tamil, Sridevi worked in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi productions. She went on to become one of the most formidable actresses of the 1980s and 1990s in Hindi cinema. From a child artiste, she became Indian cinema’s first female superstar.

She is remembered for her spellbinding performances in some of the iconic Bollywood films like Mr. India, Nagina, Lamhe, Sadma, ChalBaaz, Chandni, Khuda Gawah, among many others in different Indian languages.

Sridevi, who made a comeback to Bollywood in 2012 with English Vinglish after a long break of 15 years, was last seen in Mom in 2017. She shot for a cameo appearance in October for Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming film Zero which is expected to release in December this year.