New Delhi: From beautiful looks to acting skills, Sridevi has everything. Every time she comes on the silver screen, she leaves us in awe of her.
Born on August 13, 1963, the queen bee of Bollywood has added yet another year to her already legendary life.
As she turns 52, we take you through her envious cinematic journey, which is full of all the ingredients of a Bollywood film.
She started her career at the age of four in Thirumugham's devotional film Thunaivan. She also acted as a child artist in 1975's most talked about film 'Julie'.
She made her Bollywood debut as a lead star with the film 'Solva Saavan' in 1978.
With films like Himmatwala, Tohfa, Mr India, Chandni, Nagina, Sadma; Sridevi emerged as the top star in the country. Jaya Prada was considered Sridevi's strongest contender at that point of time. Their fierce competition was one of the worst kept secrets ever.
As per a report, during the shoot of Maqsad both the actresses would never see eye to eye. Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra then had to lock the two actresses in a room hoping this would break the ice.
But when the door was opened after two hours, they both were sitting in two corners silently.
Although she left the industry in 1997, she is regarded by the industry members as one of the most talented and prominent actresses of India.
Sridevi was also considered for a role in Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg wanted to cast Sridevi for a brief role. But she was at the peak of her career in Bollywood then and rejected the offer.
Taking up a Hollywood project would have meant a long break from Bollywood and she was not ready to lose out on her Bollywood projects because of this.
Sridevi was director duo Abbas Mustan's first choice to play the female lead in their movie Baazigar. At that point of time, Seema and Priya were supposed to be twins.
And Sridevi was supposed to play a double role (Seema and Priya) in the movie.
But the directors felt that killing Sridevi would only make Shah Rukh emerge as a villain. They wanted the audience to sympathise with SRK's character and thus they had to bring relatively unknown actresses to play the part. Kajol and Shilpa Shetty eventually took up the role.
During the 80s, Sridevi was allegedly dating Disco King Mithun Chakraborty. The two were also rumoured to have secretly tied the knot in a temple.
As per a report in a leading daily, the actress was not aware of Mithun's marital status and when she realised that he was not going to end his marriage with Yogita Bali, she walked out of his life.
Yogita Bali is said to have tried commiting suicide after she got to know of this episode. Sridevi and Mithun never spoke about any of this in the open.
It was during this period that Sridevi's affair with Boney Kapoor started making news. Sridevi carried her broken heart to the Kapoors who in turn invited her to stay with them.
While nursing her broken heart Sridevi fell in love with Boney Kapoor. But Arjun Kapoor's mother Mona had no clue of what was going on in her house.
Jeetendra and Sridevi emerged as the most popular couple of their times. The duo was paired romantically opposite each other in 16 films, out of which 11 films were superhit.
Films like Himmatwala, Ghar Sansaar, Tohfa, Mawwali established them as the most bankable couple of the decade. Sridevi was also the highest paid Hindi actress from 1985-1992.
When she made her debut in Bollywood, Sridevi was not comfortable talking in Hindi. Her voice was mostly dubbed by Naaz and Rekha had dubbed for her in Aakhiri Raasta.
She dubbed her dialogues for the first time in Chandni. While Rekha was the original choice for Chandni, Jaya Prada had intially been offered Nagina.
Both the films added to Sridevi's versatility and helped her in growing a strong foothold in the industry.
Sridevi has two daughters named after two famous Bollywood characters - Jhanvi and Khushi. In 2013, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honor.
She has also won 5 Filmfare Awards for Best Actress in a leading role. Lamhe, Chalbaaz and Mr India were three of them, while the other two were regional films.
After a fifteen year long sabbatical, the glamour queen of Bollywood announced her comeback in 2011 with her new film “English Vinglish” under Gauri Shinde's direction.
The movie received huge critical acclaim and commercial success. Sridevi is one of those rare actresses who made a successful comeback after taking a self imposed break of more than a decade.
We wish this iconic diva a very happy birthday!
