Happy Birthday Sridevi: Did you know she was the highest paid actor of her time?

Even at 54, Sridevi never fails to mesmerise fans and critics with her acting prowess. The actor, who made a comeback of sorts in the 2012 film English Vinglish, recently garnered appreciation for her film Mom. Sridevi is one of the first female actors crowned with the superstar tag. And looking at her body of work, she totally deserved it. Starting her journey in filmdom at the age of four in Thunaivan (1969), Sridevi went on to become the most sought- after artist in the film industry and she remains one of those few actors, who achieved fame both in Bollywood and regional cinema.

Interestingly, Sridevi was the highest paid actor of her time. But not many would know that she actually spells her name as Sreedevi or that she declined Steven Spielberg’s offer to work in Jurassic Park (1993)? Well, on the occasion of her birthday we list a few such trivia about the actor:

1. Sridevi was born in the year 1963 to Ayyapan Yanger and Rajeswari Yanger, and was named Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan. Her father was a lawyer.

2. The actor started her career at the tender age of four in Thirumugham’s devotional film, Thunaivan (1969). She was a child artiste in the film, Julie (1975). With Solva Saavan, Sridevi made her foray into Bollywood as the lead actor in 1979.

3. Not many know that she was down with fever and had 103 degrees temperature, when she was shooting for the popular song Na Jaane Kaha Se Aayi Hai in Chalbaaz (1989).

4. Sridevi did playback singing for films such Sadma (1983), Chandni (1989), Garajna (1991) and Kshana Kshanam (1991).

5. For the 1992 film Beta, filmmaker Indra Kumar wanted Sridevi to portray the role of Saraswati [which was played by Madhuri Dixit] opposite Raju [portrayed by Anil Kapoor]. But the actor didn’t do the film because by then, she had already acted in quite a few films with Anil Kapoor.

6. Interestingly, Sridevi was considered to play a brief role in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993). However, she declined the offer as was busy with Bollywood projects.

7. Sridevi’s mother tongue is Tamil; so she faced difficulty in speaking Hindi, when she joined Bollywood. Yesteryear actor Naaz used to dub for her. In Aakhiri Raasta (1986), Rekha dubbed for her. The first time Sridevi dubbed for her role was in Chandni (1989).

8. Jaya Prada was considered Sridevi’s strongest competitor and the two actors didn’t share a cordial relationship. During the shoot of Maqsad (1984), Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra decided to break the ice between them and locked them up in a room hoping that they would make peace. But when they opened the door, both Sridevi and Jaya were sitting silently in the two corners of the room.

9. For two of the most important films in her life, Sridevi was the second choice. Nagina (1986) was first offered to Jaya Prada and Rekha was considered for Chandni.

10. Sridevi actually spells her name as Sreedevi, but then she never corrected the spelling of her name in film credits.

11. During 80s, Sridevi allegedly had a love affair with Mithun Chakraborty. It was rumoured that they even secretly got married in a temple. However, she was not aware that Mithun was married to Yogita Bali, who tried committing suicide after she came to know about Mithun’s second marriage. Later, while she was nursing her broken heart, Sridevi fell in love with filmmaker Boney Kapoor. Then, Boney’s then wife, late Mona Kapoor, didn’t know about the affair. Sridevi and Boney got married in 1996 and have two daughters, Jhanvi (19) and Khushi (16). Boney has two children from his first marriage — Arjun (32) and Anshula (24).

12. Sridevi played both south super star late NTR’s granddaughter in Badi Panthulu (1972) and love interest in quite a few movies.