Sridevi Biography
Sridevi, born Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan, was an Indian actress whose career spanned more than five decades and shaped the course of Indian cinema. Widely regarded as the first female superstar of Indian films, she built a body of work across Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada cinema that few performers before or since have matched. Her ability to move effortlessly between comedy, tragedy, romance, and action made her a rare talent whose appeal cut across regions and languages.
From her beginnings as a child artist in South Indian films to her reign as Bollywood’s leading lady in the 1980s and 1990s, and later her celebrated comeback as an adult performer with new range and depth, Sridevi’s journey reflects both extraordinary talent and personal resilience. This article looks closely at her early life, her rise through the film industry, her most memorable work, her personal life, and the legacy she left behind after her sudden passing in 2018.
Sridevi’s Early Life
Sridevi was born on 13 August 1963 in Meenampatti, a small village near Sivakasi in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Her father, Ayyapan, was a lawyer from Sivakasi, and her mother, Rajeswari, came from Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. Because of her mother’s background, Telugu was Sridevi’s first language, though she also grew up speaking Tamil fluently. She had a sister named Srilatha and two step-brothers.
Sridevi’s childhood looked very different from that of most children her age. She entered the film industry at the age of four and never really experienced a conventional school life. In an interview with The New Indian Express, she reflected on this by saying that she lost out on school and college life, but that working in film from such a young age gave her no time to dwell on what she had missed, and she felt grateful for the path her life took instead.
Her earliest screen appearance came in the 1967 Tamil film Kandhan Karunai, in which she played a child role at just four years old. She followed this with a part as the young Lord Muruga in the mythological Tamil film Thunaivan, a role that gave her an early breakthrough as a child performer. Around the same period, she also began appearing in Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada productions, quickly becoming one of the most recognisable child actors in South Indian cinema. Her performance in the Malayalam film Poompatta in 1971 earned her the Kerala State Film Award for Best Child Artist, an early sign of the acclaim that would follow her throughout her career.
Sridevi’s State of Origin
Sridevi’s roots trace back to Tamil Nadu, specifically the region around Sivakasi in what is now Virudhunagar district. Sivakasi, her father’s hometown, is a town historically known for its fireworks, matchstick, and printing industries, and it was here that her family was based. Meenampatti, her actual birthplace, is a village close to this town.
While her paternal roots were firmly Tamil, her mother’s family came from Tirupati in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh, giving Sridevi a mixed South Indian heritage that shaped both her cultural upbringing and her linguistic ability. This dual connection to Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh allowed her to work with ease across the Tamil and Telugu film industries from a very young age, long before she became a household name in Hindi cinema. Even after achieving national fame through Bollywood, Sridevi remained closely associated with her Tamil Nadu origins, and news of her passing in 2018 brought an outpouring of grief from residents of Meenampatti and Sivakasi, who considered her a source of local pride.
Sridevi’s Career
Sridevi’s professional journey is one of the longest and most varied in Indian film history, beginning in early childhood and continuing, with one major break, until the year of her death. Her career can be understood across several distinct phases, each marked by a different kind of achievement.
Child Artist Years
After her debut in Kandhan Karunai in 1967, Sridevi worked steadily as a child artist through the late 1960s and early 1970s. She appeared in Nam Naadu (1969), Kumara Sambhavam (1969) in Malayalam, Babu (1971), Badi Panthulu (1972), Bala Bharatam (1972), Vasantha Maaligai (1972), and Bhakta Kumbara (1974) in Kannada. In 1972, she made her Bollywood debut as a child artist in Rani Mera Naam, and in 1975 she appeared in the Hindi film Julie, playing the younger sister of the lead actress. During this period she also shared screen space with the future Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in several films.
Rise in South Indian Cinema
Sridevi’s transition from child roles to adult lead roles happened in 1976, when she was cast in K. Balachander’s Tamil film Moondru Mudichu at the age of thirteen. This marked the start of her career as a leading lady. She went on to star in a string of successful South Indian films, including 16 Vayathinile (1977), Sigappu Rojakkal (1978), and its Telugu remake Padaharella Vayasu (1978). She built a long list of collaborations with major South Indian stars of the era, appearing opposite Kamal Haasan in twenty seven films across different languages, and working with N. T. Rama Rao, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Krishna, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, and Sivaji Ganesan at various points in her career.
Two performances from this period stand out for the acclaim they brought her. Her role in the 1981 Tamil film Meendum Kokila won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress in the Tamil category, and her portrayal of a woman suffering from retrograde amnesia in the 1982 film Moondram Pirai won her the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress. This performance later became the basis for one of her most acclaimed Hindi films.
Hindi Film Stardom
Sridevi’s first lead role in a Hindi film came with Solva Sawan in 1979, but it was Himmatwala in 1983, opposite Jeetendra, that established her firmly in Bollywood. The film was one of the highest grossing Hindi releases of the year and introduced Sridevi to a national audience. The Jeetendra and Sridevi pairing went on to appear in sixteen films together, including Tohfa (1984), which became the highest grossing Hindi film of that year.
It was Sadma, also released in 1983, that brought her serious critical acclaim. A Hindi remake of Moondram Pirai, the film saw Sridevi play a woman with amnesia in a performance that critics later described as one of the finest of her career and one that earned her first Filmfare nomination for Best Actress.
The mid to late 1980s saw Sridevi reach the peak of her stardom. In 1986, she starred in the fantasy film Nagina, playing a shape shifting woman, which became one of the biggest hits of the year and cemented her position as the leading female star of the decade. The same year brought further box office successes with Karma and Janbaaz. In 1987, she starred opposite Anil Kapoor in Mr. India, playing a journalist in a science fiction comedy that became one of the most beloved Hindi films of its time. For this role, she was reportedly paid an unprecedented fee, making her the highest paid actress in the Indian film industry at that point.
In 1989, Sridevi took on the title role in Yash Chopra’s Chandni, a film that became one of the defining hits of the decade and one that many critics still cite as her most iconic role. The same year, she played a double role as separated twin sisters in the comedy ChaalBaaz, which won her a second Filmfare Award for Best Actress.
The early 1990s continued this run of success. In 1991, she starred in Yash Chopra’s Lamhe, playing both a mother and a daughter in a story that dealt with unconventional romantic themes. Although the film underperformed commercially on release, it won widespread critical praise and earned Sridevi her third Filmfare Award for Best Actress, along with five Filmfare trophies overall including Best Film. In 1992, she starred opposite Amitabh Bachchan in the epic drama Khuda Gawah, playing a double role as an Afghan warrior and her daughter. The film was shot partly in Afghanistan and remained popular there for years afterward.
Sridevi continued working through the 1990s in films such as Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1993), Gumrah (1993), and Laadla (1994), each of which added to her long list of Filmfare nominations. Her final film before taking a career break was Judaai in 1997, in which she played a housewife willing to go to extreme lengths for wealth, a role that earned her an eighth Filmfare Best Actress nomination.
Career Hiatus
In 1996, Sridevi married film producer Boney Kapoor. Around the same period, her mother was undergoing treatment for complications related to a brain tumour, and after her mother’s death in 1997, Sridevi stepped away from acting to focus on her family. During this hiatus, she made brief television appearances, including hosting the talk show Kaboom in 2005 and starring in the sitcom Malini Iyer between 2004 and 2005. She also developed an interest in painting, and in 2010 several of her artworks were sold at an international auction, with proceeds donated to charity.
Comeback With English Vinglish
After fifteen years away from feature films, Sridevi returned to the big screen in 2012 with English Vinglish, a comedy drama directed by debutante filmmaker Gauri Shinde. She played Shashi Godbole, a homemaker who enrols in an English speaking course after being mocked by her own family for her limited English skills. The film and her performance received widespread critical acclaim both in India and internationally, and she was praised for delivering one of the finest performances of her career. The success of the film made Sridevi the only major Bollywood actress to stage a fully successful comeback as a leading lady after marriage and a long break from the industry. She earned her ninth Filmfare nomination for Best Actress for the role.
Final Films
Following her comeback, Sridevi appeared in the Tamil fantasy film Puli (2015) and returned to Hindi cinema with the psychological thriller Mom (2017), which marked her 300th film. In Mom, she played a mother seeking justice for her daughter, a role that was widely praised by critics. For this performance, she received the National Film Award for Best Actress, awarded posthumously after her death. Her final on-screen appearance was a cameo in the 2018 film Zero. At the time of her passing, she had signed on for the period drama Kalank, a role that was later given to Madhuri Dixit.
Sridevi’s Movies
Sridevi appeared in close to three hundred films across five languages over the course of her career. Some of her most notable and widely remembered films include the following.
- Moondru Mudichu (1976)
- 16 Vayathinile (1977)
- Sigappu Rojakkal (1978)
- Meendum Kokila (1981)
- Moondram Pirai (1982)
- Himmatwala (1983)
- Sadma (1983)
- Tohfa (1984)
- Nagina (1986)
- Karma (1986)
- Mr. India (1987)
- Chandni (1989)
- ChaalBaaz (1989)
- Lamhe (1991)
- Khuda Gawah (1992)
- Gumrah (1993)
- Laadla (1994)
- Judaai (1997)
- English Vinglish (2012)
- Puli (2015)
- Mom (2017)
Sridevi’s Awards and Honours
Sridevi’s contribution to Indian cinema was recognised through a long list of awards spanning her entire career. She received a National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Mom, and won multiple Filmfare Awards, including three in the main Best Actress category for ChaalBaaz, Lamhe, and posthumous recognition through a Lifetime Achievement Award granted in 2019. She also won three Filmfare Awards South, along with a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, a Kerala State Film Award, and a Nandi Award from the state of Andhra Pradesh.
In 2013, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri, the country’s fourth highest civilian award, in recognition of her decades long contribution to Indian film. That same year, a national poll conducted by CNN-IBN to mark the centenary of Indian cinema voted her India’s Greatest Actress in a hundred years, and she was ranked among the top performers in a similar poll conducted in the United Kingdom. She also received the Smita Patil Memorial Award in 1990, the Kalasaraswathi Award from the government of Andhra Pradesh in 1997, and honours from the government of Kerala in 2013 for her contribution to cinema. In 2018, following her death, she received the Asian Award for Contribution to Cinema and an Outstanding Achievement in Cinema recognition at The Asian Awards. In 2023, Google marked what would have been her sixtieth birthday with a dedicated Google Doodle.
Sridevi’s Personal Life
Sridevi married film producer Boney Kapoor in 1996. The couple had two daughters, Janhvi Kapoor, born in 1997, and Khushi Kapoor, born in 2000, both of whom later became actresses in their own right. Sridevi was known to be extremely private about her personal life and rarely discussed it in interviews.
Those who worked closely with her often described a striking contrast between her on-screen persona and her real personality. While she was known for playing strong, vivacious, and outspoken women in her films, colleagues and journalists frequently noted that she was shy and reserved off camera. Journalist Rajeev Masand once remarked that she was one of the most reticent people he had known in private, yet transformed completely into a commanding presence whenever the camera began rolling.
Sridevi also had a close relationship with her family throughout her career. She was accompanied to film sets by her mother or her sister for many years during her active acting period. Her father passed away in 1990 following a heart attack while she was shooting for Lamhe, and her mother passed away in 1997 after complications related to a brain tumour operation.
Sridevi’s Death
On 24 February 2018, Sridevi was found dead in her hotel room at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She had travelled to the UAE with her younger daughter Khushi to attend a family wedding and had planned to spend a few extra days shopping ahead of her elder daughter Janhvi’s twenty first birthday. Her husband, Boney Kapoor, joined her in Dubai on the evening of 24 February, and the two had spoken and made plans for dinner shortly before she was found unresponsive in the bathroom.
Initial reports suggested the cause of death was cardiac arrest, but an investigation by Dubai authorities later determined that she had died of accidental drowning, with toxicology reports showing traces of alcohol in her system. Her death was widely reported by international media, and tributes poured in from political leaders, including the Prime Minister of India and the President of India, as well as from countless colleagues across the Indian film industry.
Her body was flown back to Mumbai, and her funeral, held on 28 February 2018, was attended by thousands of mourners and conducted with full state honours, an honour rarely extended to figures from the entertainment industry in India. Her ashes were later immersed in the sea off the coast of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu.
Sridevi’s Legacy
Sridevi’s influence on Indian cinema extended far beyond her own performances. She is widely credited as the first female superstar of Indian film, at a time when the industry was dominated by male leads, and she proved that a woman could carry a film commercially on her own name. During the 1980s, she was the highest earning woman in the Indian entertainment industry, and her fee for Mr. India in 1987 made her the highest paid Indian actress of her era.
Many actresses who followed her have credited Sridevi as a major influence on their own careers, including Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kajol, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone, and Alia Bhatt. In a tribute written for Time magazine, Priyanka Chopra described Sridevi as someone everyone wanted to be like, capable of being childlike, funny, sexy, and serious all at once, and credited her as a major reason she herself became an actress.
Following her death, two biographies were published about her life, one by journalist Lalita Iyer and another by author Satyarth Nayak titled Sridevi: The Eternal Screen Goddess, published by Penguin Random House. She was also included in the In Memoriam segment at the 90th Academy Awards ceremony in 2018, a recognition of her stature reaching well beyond Indian cinema. Decades after she first stepped in front of a camera as a four year old child, Sridevi’s body of work remains a benchmark for versatility, range, and star power in Indian film.
Conclusion
Sridevi’s life told the story of a girl from a small village near Sivakasi who grew into one of the most celebrated performers Indian cinema has ever produced. From her earliest days as a child actor to her position as Bollywood’s leading lady, and later her acclaimed return to the screen as a mature performer, she demonstrated a rare combination of comic timing, dramatic depth, and screen presence that few actors have matched. Though her life was cut short in 2018, the films she left behind, and the generations of actors she inspired, continue to keep her legacy alive in Indian cinema.
FAQs
When was Sridevi born?
Sridevi was born on 13 August 1963 in Meenampatti village near Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, India.
What was Sridevi’s real name?
Her birth name was Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan. She later became known mononymously as Sridevi throughout her career.
Which languages did Sridevi act in?
She acted in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada language films over the course of her career.
What was Sridevi’s most famous film?
Several of her films are considered iconic, including Mr. India, Chandni, Nagina, and Lamhe, though English Vinglish is often cited as one of her most acclaimed performances later in her career.
Who did Sridevi marry?
She married film producer Boney Kapoor in 1996. They had two daughters, Janhvi Kapoor and Khushi Kapoor, both of whom became actresses.
How did Sridevi die?
Sridevi passed away on 24 February 2018 in Dubai. Authorities determined the cause of death to be accidental drowning.
Did Sridevi win any national awards?
Yes. She received the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Mom, awarded posthumously, along with numerous Filmfare Awards and the Padma Shri from the Government of India in 2013.
Where was Sridevi from?
She was born in Meenampatti village near Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu, India, with family roots also tracing to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh through her mother.