Sridevi: Biography of Indian Cinema's First Female Superstar

A child star from Sivakasi

Sridevi was born Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan on 13 August 1963 in Meenampatti, a village near Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu. Her father, Ayyapan, was a lawyer, and her mother, Rajeswari, came from Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. Telugu was the language of her home, and she also spoke Tamil fluently.

She started acting at the age of four, in the Tamil devotional film Kandhan Karunai (1967), and was soon in demand as a child actor in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She later said that she missed out on school and college, because work never stopped: she went straight from child roles to playing the heroine.

Family background and education

Sridevi's father, Ayyapan Yanger, was a lawyer in Sivakasi, and her mother, Rajeswari, managed her career for many years and accompanied her to film sets. She had a younger sister, Srilatha, and two step-brothers from her father's earlier marriage.

Because she worked continuously from early childhood, Sridevi had little formal schooling. She learned on film sets, picking up Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and later Hindi; in some of her early Hindi films her voice was dubbed by another artist.

Stardom in the South

Her first adult lead came at 13, in K. Balachander's Tamil film Moondru Mudichu (1976), opposite Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. A run of successful Tamil and Telugu films followed, among them Bharathiraja's 16 Vayathinile (1977), Sigappu Rojakkal (1978), Padaharella Vayasu (1978) and Balu Mahendra's Moondram Pirai (1982), in which she played a young woman who loses her memory after an accident. In Telugu she starred opposite most of the leading heroes of the era and later won the Filmfare Award South and the Nandi Award for Ram Gopal Varma's Kshana Kshanam (1991).

Himmatwala and the Hindi years

Sridevi's first Hindi lead had been Solva Sawan (1979), but her breakthrough came with Himmatwala (1983), opposite Jeetendra. It was one of the biggest hits of the year, and its song "Nainon Mein Sapna" made her a national star. The same year she gave a moving performance in Sadma, the Hindi remake of Moondram Pirai. Tohfa (1984) and a long run of films with Jeetendra followed.

In Nagina (1986) she played a shape-shifting snake woman, and in Shekhar Kapur's Mr. India (1987) a sharp-tongued crime reporter. Her Charlie Chaplin act in Mr. India became one of the best-loved comic scenes in Hindi cinema, and trade observers joked that the film should have been called Ms. India. Yash Chopra's Chandni (1989) and Lamhe (1991), the double-role comedy ChaalBaaz (1989) and the epic Khuda Gawah (1992), shot partly in Afghanistan, confirmed her position. Through the late 1980s she was widely described as the highest-paid actress in India, and the press called her the first female superstar of Hindi cinema.

Marriage and a long break

Sridevi married the producer Boney Kapoor in 1996. Their daughters, Janhvi and Khushi, were born in 1997 and 2000; both later became actors. After Judaai (1997) she stepped away from films to raise her family. She appeared on television in the sitcom Malini Iyer (2004–2005) and as a guest and judge on several shows, but did not take a lead film role for about 15 years.

Marriage, children and family life

Sridevi married the film producer Boney Kapoor, son of the producer Surinder Kapoor and elder brother of the actors Anil and Sanjay Kapoor, in 1996. Boney Kapoor had produced Mr. India, and the couple had worked together for years. The marriage made her part of the Kapoor film family; Boney Kapoor's children from his first marriage are the producer Anshula Kapoor and the actor Arjun Kapoor.

Their elder daughter, Janhvi Kapoor, born in 1997, made her acting debut in Dhadak in July 2018, five months after her mother's death. Their younger daughter, Khushi Kapoor, born in 2000, debuted in Zoya Akhtar's The Archies (2023). The family lived in Mumbai, and Sridevi kept close ties with Chennai, where she had grown up in the film industry.

English Vinglish

Her return came with English Vinglish (2012), the first feature by the advertising filmmaker Gauri Shinde, produced by R. Balki. Sridevi played Shashi Godbole, a Pune housewife who makes sweets for a living and is quietly mocked by her husband and daughter for her poor English. While in New York for a family wedding, she secretly enrols in a four-week English course. Shinde based the story partly on her own mother.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2012, where it received a long standing ovation, and was released in India on 5 October 2012 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Its trailer, released on her birthday in August 2012, and its promotional stills were shared widely, which is how many readers came to the old CareerMasti page on the film. Critics praised the performance as one of her finest, and English Vinglish became a commercial success, reportedly grossing more than ₹100 crore worldwide.

Final films and death

Sridevi had a cameo in Bombay Talkies (2013) and played a queen in the Tamil fantasy film Puli (2015). Her 300th and last leading role was in Mom (2017), produced by her husband, as a teacher who seeks revenge on the men who assaulted her stepdaughter. The role brought her a posthumous National Film Award for Best Actress. She also made a cameo in Zero (2018), released after her death.

In February 2018 she travelled to the United Arab Emirates for a family wedding. She died on 24 February 2018 in her hotel room in Dubai; the Dubai authorities concluded that she had accidentally drowned in the bathtub. She was cremated in Mumbai with state honours, and thousands of fans lined the streets for her funeral procession.

Selected filmography

Sridevi appeared in about 300 films across five languages. The table lists her best-known roles.

Awards by year

For more on her comeback, see our article on Sridevi in English Vinglish.

Honours and legacy

Sridevi received the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, in 2013. Her other honours include Filmfare Best Actress awards for ChaalBaaz and Lamhe, Filmfare Awards South and a Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award. In a 2013 CNN-IBN poll marking the centenary of Indian cinema she was voted India's greatest actress of the previous 100 years.

She is remembered for her comic timing, her dancing and the way she switched between languages and genres. English Vinglish in particular showed that a woman in her late forties, returning after marriage and motherhood, could still lead a hit film.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Sridevi (cross-checked dates, films and honours)
2. Wikipedia: English Vinglish
3. Wikipedia: List of awards and nominations received by Sridevi

Facts checked against the sources above by Tulasiram Pemmadi on 8 November 2026 (IST). Where reliable sources disagree, the article says so. Spotted an error? See our corrections page or email contact@nextplayintel.com.

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