Actress Sridevi

Sridevi is an Indian actress who has starred in hundreds of Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam language films.Starting acting at the age of four, she made her debut as an adult in the late 1970s. After going on to establish herself as one of the leading actresses of her time, she left the industry in 1997 to raise her children.

Sridevi was born in a Meenampatti village near Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu in Virudhu Nagar district. Her mother tongue is Tamil. Her father Ayyapan, was a lawyer, and her mothers name was Rajeswari, who moved to Madras from Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. Sridevi has a sister, Srilatham, and two stepbrothers Satish and Anand from her fathers previous marriage. Her cousins, Maheswari and Karthik have also appeared in films.

Sridevi started her career as a child artist in the Tamil movie Kandhan Karunai playing the role of Lord Muruga (1967) and acted in many Tamil and Telugu movies. During her early teens, she acted in a number of Telugu,Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam movies as a lead heroine.she acted in lot of telugu movies, i.e. padaharella vayasu, vetagadu, jagadekaveerudu athilokasundari, kshanakshanam. Many of her Malayalam movies were directed by I. V. Sasi, some examples being Aadhyapaadam, Aalinganam, Kuttavum Sikshaiyum, Aa Nimisham.

In 1976, she got her first big break as a heroine in K. Balachanders Parallel Cinema Moondru Mudichu, where she starred opposite Kamal Haasan and Rajnikanth. Sridevi then followed with a succession of films with both Haasan and Rajnikanth. With the former, she was in movies such as Guru, Sankarlal, Sigappu Rojakkal, Thaayillamal Naanillai, Meendum Kokila, Vaazhve Maayam, Varumaiyin Niram Sigappu, Neela Malargal, Moondram Pirai, 16 Vayathinile. With Rajnikanth, she appeared in movies such as Dharmayuddham, Priya, Pokkiri Raja, Thanikattu Raja, Adutha Varisu, Nan Adimai Illai.

At the same time, Sridevi made Telugu language movies, a number of which were made by K. Raghavendra Rao. With N. T. Rama Rao, she acted in movies such as Konda Veeti Simham, Vetagadu, Sardar Paparayudu and Bobbili Puli. With A. Nageswara Rao, she appeared in movies such as Mudulla Koduku, Premabhishekham, Bangaru Kanku, and Premakanuka. With Krishna she acted in movies such as Kanchu Kagada, Kalavari Samsaram, Krishnavatharam, Burripalem Bolludu, and Khaidi Rudrayya. Towards the tail end of her Telugu film career, Sridevi started acting in Hindi movies. Many of these initial movies starred Jeetendra and were remakes of her Telugu movies, mostly directed by K. Raghavendra Rao, and K. Bappaiah.

In 1978, she starred in her first Hindi film, Solva Saawan. Her second movie, Himmatwala with Jeetendra whom she also appeared with in Tohfa, Mawaali and Justice Chaudhury. In 1983, Sridevi starred opposite Kamal Hasan in the drama Sadma. The film earned Sridevi her first Filmfare nomination for Best Actress.

Sridevi films in the 80s included Justice Chowdhary, Jaani Dost, Mawaali, Maqsad, Tohfa, Karma, Aakhree Raasta, Jaanbaaz, Ghar Sansar, Nagina, Mr India, Suhagan, and Aulad. In 1988s Chaalbaaz, she played a double-role as twin sisters which won her the first Hindi Filmfare Best Actress Award. The same year also received an nomination for Yash Chopras Chandni. Chopra again directed her in Lamhe (1991), where Sridevi plays a double-role act as mother and daughter won her a second Hindi Filmfare Best Actress Award.

She followed it with Khuda Gawah in 1992, where she had a double role as a pining Afghan wife, opposite Amitabh Bachchan. The Telugu film Kshana Kshanam was released in the same year and afforded her another Filmfare Best Actress Award and a Nandi Award. These nominations were followed by another performance as an innocent victim trapped in a Hong Kong prison in Mahesh Bhatts Gumrah and a negative role in Laadla. For her performance in the drama Judaai (1997), she got her last Filmfare nomination after which she left the industry to marry filmmaker Boney Kapoor and raise their two daughters, Jhanavi and Khushi.

After a six-year hiatus, Sridevi returned to the small screen, briefly, in the Sahara sitcom Malini Iyer (2004–2005). She also appeared on Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai for Karisma Kapoor (2004) and as a judge in the TV show Kaboom (2005). She performed a medley of some of her music at the 52nd Filmfare Awards 2007. She is a member of the Board of Directors at the Asian Academy of Film