Bhubaneswar: Book “Sridevi – The Eternal Screen Goddess” written by Satyarth Nayak unveiled in Bhubaneswar. The book based on the life of the Bollywood icon and the first female superstar Sridevi.
The book was launched by the legendary Odia actress Anu Choudhury, speaker and social enterprenuer Sujit Mohapatra, Kalinga Literary Festival Co-director Debasis Samantray at KLF Corner in Oxford Bookstore, Bhubaneswar.
The book was earlier unveiled by actress Deepika Padukone in Delhi. Filmmaker Karan Johar also unveiled it in Mumbai.
The success of Bollywood movie ‘Mr India’ made late actress Sri Devi conscious of her choices and she had started demanding stronger roles for her films , said Satyarth Nayak who has authored a book on her.
Speaking to the audience on 12th KLF Corner, a monthly literary event at the Oxford book store here, Nayak said Sri Devi had even refused to act with Amitabh Bachhan for many years, saying she would act with the top star only if the lead female character has a central role to play in the script.
Many years later, Amitabh Bachhan had to send a truck load of flowers to Sri Devi on her movie set, to get her on board for the movie ‘Khuda Gawah.’
Similarly, when she was offered the role of Juhi Chawal in Darr, she refused the role saying she was better suited for the character later done by Shahrukh Khan, revealed Nayak, who was also the screen writer of successful TV series Poros.
Better Script Choice, Poor Diet Selection
Sri Devi managed to stay on the top despite her entry from early age because she always chose better scripts than her counterparts in the Hindi movie industry.
“The fact that Sri Devi chose to come back after a gap of 15 years for the movie English Vinglish reveals that she was waiting for a perfect script, where she could play a central role.
Despite her better decisions while signing up a movie, she sometimes chose diets that had adverse effects in her health.
“She had issues of low blood pressure and many a times she would go for salt-free diet which was suicidal for her health. She had fallen many a times in bathroom earlier also, before that unfortunate event took place,” Nayak said at the KLF Corner event , where Ollywood actress Anu Choudhury participated.
The author had started working on the book after her death and came to know about the details from her family members and close colleagues.
Sri Devi was a compassionate person and even after being successful in Bollywood, she always feared public speaking . Whenever she was approached by a political party, she had refused the offer saying she does not know what to speak to the public, said the biographer, who was born at Cuttack.
KLF Corner is a monthly literary meet and is being organised by Kalinga Literature Festival (KLF) along with Oxford book store every month . The event started a year ago where famous post Jayanta Mohapatra was invited to recite his poems and talked about his journey as a poet.
KLF director Rashmi Ranjan Parida thanked all the stakeholders for successive organisation of the event for a year-long period and wished that the initiate would go a long mile. Debashis Samantray and Debamitra Mishra managed the event on Sunday.
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