On Sridevi's 62nd birth anniversary, filmmaker Pankaj Parashar takes us back to the making of Chaalbaaz, the cult classic that cemented her status as a performer par excellence and shares never-heard-before anecdotes about the star who left everyone in awe.
It was the late 80s, and Pankaj Parashar was at Film City when he witnessed something unforgettable. He recalls, "There was Vinod Khanna, Rajinikanth, Rishi Kapoor and Shakti Kapoor. They were all shooting for different movies, but there was one common table set for lunch because everybody had got some good food. I was asked to join them for lunch. And suddenly, all of them stood up. Can you imagine? There was Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Rajinikanth, Shakti Kapoor. All stood up like students. I turned around and I see Sridevi had walked in. She just bowed down, smiled and left."
She was only 24 then, but the respect she commanded was unmatched. Yet, behind that image of a superstar was a shy young woman. "There was something about her that made you feel she was arrogant, that she thinks too much of herself, but that was not the case. She was shy. Also, she was shy because she was not sure of her language... She told me this, 'Still learning English and Hindi sir, no dubbing in real life.'"
When Chaalbaaz began, Parashar admits he thought she was aloof. "In the first schedule, I felt she is arrogant, she would not talk. So I thought if she is a star, I understand. My work was happening and everything was going fine."
But everything changed after she saw the edit of the first schedule. "It was a 12-minute clip. There was dead silence. We played it once, then she said again, so we played it again. After that, she turned and looked at me and she had changed. A girl who had already done more than 250 films, you can imagine what her sixth sense will be like! She sensed it. She said this is different. That was the first time she smiled at me. And then when we started shooting, she was different. She started communicating, giving inputs. The change was 180 degrees."
Her dedication was unmatched, and her collaboration skills surprised even the director. Sridevi had a deep creative streak that came alive during song sequences. "She and Saroj Khan were bum chums... The first song that we were shooting was Bhoot Raja with Rajinikanth. They wouldn't talk to me. What they were used to was director sitting on the side and choreographer and heroine shooting the song. And I didn't want that."
So he took charge. "I told her, Ma'am, I want to shoot it my way. So Sridevi said, Okay, go ahead. Later, when we were planning the rain song, she called me and Saroj and said what will you do with this song tell me. So I took one day's time, I got the whole song story-boarded and Sridevi did sketches of the costume of that song, that plastic raincoat, cap and all. We met and she showed me her sketches and I showed her my storyboard. She started clapping and said, Saroj now you tell us what are you doing? We both have done our homework."
She gave her all, even when unwell. "She had 101 fever but she kept dancing. After every shot she used to come and ask, 'Wasn't I good?'"
But the bond between Sridevi and Saroj Khan wasn't without friction. The two had a fallout, and Parashar became the unlikely mediator. "Saroj came to my house one day and said, I need a favour. She gave me a letter addressed to Sridevi... It said, Dear Sri... we are too close to be fighting... let's move on. I read it out to Sridevi in her van. Believe it or not, she got tears in her eyes and turned away. Then I asked her, Can I bring her over? Will you meet her? And she said okay. I brought Saroj and made sure they were friends again."
Later, Sridevi called Pankaj Parashar her favorite director, and specifically mentioned ChaalBaaz as her favorite film.
Parashar also credits Sridevi for spotting talent early like a newcomer named Akshay Kumar. "I was doing a film with her, Meri Biwi Ka Jawab Nahi. She said, let's take Anil Kapoor as the lead. But I told her there is not much of a big role for Anil. So that time there was this boy who used to come to our office every day. I took him to meet Sridevi. It was Akshay Kumar. And the moment he entered, she looked at him and said, 'He's a star.' Bang on."
Of course, even Sridevi had her moments of temper. "She had a temper and I only saw it once. A magazine journalist asked me about my most favourite heroine. I thought they were asking about upcoming heroines, so I said Tabu. Of course, the best heroine is Sridevi. From number 1 to 10, it's only Sridevi. But the article came out and in that, 10 directors were interviewed, 9 said Sridevi, and I was the one who said Tabu. Then what? She was dubbing at Anand and called me. She was sitting there with that magazine in her hand. And she was glaring at me... She said, See what you had to say about me? Forget about praising, you didn't even mention me! She just didn't let me talk."
Two weeks later, all was forgiven. They laughed about it. Because that was Sridevi, passionate, proud, and yet, deeply human.
A superstar who could make Rajinikanth stand up, yet shyly admit she was still learning her lines. On her birth anniversary, Pankaj Parashar's memories remind us why Sridevi was, and always will be, irreplaceable.
