At the recently held at the India Today Woman Summit & Awards 2013, veteran actress Sridevi, who has made a return to Bollywood after fifteen years with English Vinglish, spoke at length about what it meant to be a screen goddess and a doting mother at the same time. She also went on to elaborate on how Bollywood has changed in the decade and half that she was on a hiatus for, to bring up her children.
Here are some highlights of the things she touched upon:
· Sharing the secret of her enduring beauty, she described herself as a very systematic person who believed in the dictum “No pain, no gain”. Playing tennis with her daughters kept her fit, she said.
· Saying she led an ordinary life and was like “Any other good mother”, she described motherhood as the most beautiful experience.
· The industry has undergone a sea change from the days when she ruled the roost. While dialogues had to be dubbed back then, sync sound is the norm now.
. In those days, where the actress had to make do with changing costumes under the biggest tree nearby, Bollywood divas now have vanity vans on permanent standby.
· She admired Vidya Balan in Kahaani, Kareena Kapoor in Talaash and Priyanka Chopra in Barfi but admitted that she was a great fan of Meryl Streep and wished she he had got some of the roles essayed by the Hollywood legend.
· On her purported rivalry and cold equation with Madhuri Dixit, she said they had both been busy with their respective careers back then but Madhuri was always warm and humble whenever they would meet. She enjoyed dancing with Madhuri on a recent TV show and would love to do a film with her, she said.
And finally, talking about how he wooed Sridevi, husband Boney Kapoor, who was seated in the audience, said it started with wooing her mother. “I made an offer of Rs 11 lakh when she had sought Rs 10 lakh for her daughter,” he said, much to the audience’s amusement. Years of relentless pursuit, including a trip to Switzerland where she was shooting, finally convinced Sridevi that a married Boney was indeed serious about her.