Sridevi

Sridevi (13 August 1963 – 24 February 2018) was an Indian actress and film producer, who starred in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada films. She was referred to as Indian cinema's first female superstar, being called "the queen of Indian Cinema" and the "Ultimate Diva" by several sources. During her career (who spanned 5 decades) she participated in 300 films.

She began her career in the later 60's as a child actress. She transitioned to adult roles in 1976 with the film Moondru Mudichu, quickly becoming one of the most popular actresses in the South Indian cinema during that decade. She fully transitioned to Bollywood in the 1980's with great success, achieving superstardom with her role in Mister India in 1987. She retired from movies in 1997 after marrying, and didn't return to films until 2012 with the spectacularly successful English Vinglish (albeit she had a brief comeback in for a TV role in the sitcom Malini Iyer between 2004 and 2005).

She formed a particularly prolific jodi with Jeetendra, starring in 16 films together during the 1980's, beginning with the wildly popular and influential Himmatwala in 1983.

Sridevi is considered one of the greatest actresses in all of Indian history, with both dramatic and comedic range and exceptional dancing skills. She tended to interpret vivacious and exhuberant women, but she could do more restrained characters, extremely serious roles, and even the occasional femme fatale. Her popularity and aura was such that she broke the legendary crystal ceiling for actresses in the industry, being the only female actor in the 1980's and 1990's to carry a film in her presence alone, becoming the best paid actress of her era, having roles specially written for her, and even rejecting roles if she didn't believe it offered something "susbtancial" for her. Numerous actresses, including Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta, Priyanka Chopra, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, Karisma Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt, had cited her as an inspiration.

Notable Films

16 Vayathinile (1977)
Moondram Pirai(1981)
Himmatwala (1983)
Sadma (1983)
Nagina (1986)
Mister India (1987)
ChaalBaaz (1989)
Chandni (1989)
Kshana Kshanam (1991)
Lamhe (1992)
Laadla (1995)
Judaai (1997)
English Vinglish (2012)
Mom (2017)