Sridevi : The South Years

by Amborish Roychoudhury

Arguably one of the greatest actresses in the history of the Hindi film industry, Sridevi set the screens alight for over forty years. Embracing every one of her varied characters, whether in comedy, action, romance, or drama, her performances gave off an energy that made every dialogue and movement of hers unforgettable.
Very few people, however, know that it was her extensive work in the South Indian film industry that made her performances feel effortless. Learning under the tutelage of legendary actors like M.G. Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa, N.T. Rama Rao, Gemini Ganesan and Sivaji Ganesan, as well as working with future legends like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Chiranjeevi, Sridevi was destined for greatness. This book looks at her early career as a child artist and leading lady before she became a household name in North India. Interspersed with interviews and insights from leading filmmakers and journalists who have worked with Sridevi, this book is a glimpse into the making of India’s first female superstar.

Genres: Biography

209 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 5, 2023

About the author

This author takes considerable (somewhat misplaced) pride in calling himself a Film Buff. Has spent nearly a decade in financial services industry and about half a decade in the digital marketing space, and is writer and content creator.

Just completed his first book – a compendium of twenty good, great, bad and horrible films that he considers as Cult. The book is called In A Cult of their Own, and if you love the movies, you'd love it too!

Reviews

[Mugdha Mahajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sridevi: The South Years is a tribute to the legendary actress who ruled the Indian cinema for over four decades. The book traces her journey from a child artist to a superstar, covering her remarkable work in the South Indian film industry as well as in Bollywood. The book also reveals the challenges and struggles she faced in her personal and professional life, and how she overcame them with grace and dignity. The book is enriched by the insights and anecdotes of the filmmakers and journalists who worked with Sridevi, as well as the rare photographs and posters that capture her charisma and beauty. The book is a must-read for anyone who admires Sridevi and her legacy.

[Nilofar Yasmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It wasn't probably as difficult for Sridevi to tap into the child in her. There were certain childish affectations in her performances. She used to flutter her eyelids a certain way, puff up her cheeks and speak in a cutesy manner that could turn mountains into marshmallows."
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Sridevi was one of the greatest and finest actresses of all-time. As audiences of the Bollywood cinema, we have known her from the hits such as 'Chandni, Himmatwala, Khuda Gawah' and others. However, her light has been illuminating initially through the South films and later in the Bollywood. She started acting at an early age of 5 and interestingly, very few people were aware of this. Before venturing into Bollywood, she has already been tagged as goddess of South Cinemas.
Amborish, with his expansive research on Sridevi's life as an actress during her South days provided us with deeper insights on her versatility of acting.
The story dated back to her grandparents' era, where her mother was given birth. She was extraordinary and her passion for doing the daring stood her out off the crowd and siblings as well. We can conclude that she has perfectly instilled her genes onto her daughter Sridevi. Acting came to her naturally right from the moment she faced the camera. Her child and teenage life was filled with sharing screens with the legendary South actors.
The book gave us little glimpses of the movies she did, the characters she played and the plot as well. Apart from her life, we can also witness two more future superstars building their careers along with hers. They are famously known as Rajnikanth and Kamal Haasan. The interviews with the prolific personalities associated with Sridevi's life gave us some more of personal insights through their experiences and opinions.
I felt almost alienated going through the book. The mentioning of the movies and some of the the actors were beyond my knowledge and understanding. However, with a comprehensive approach of the author in stating the details rescued me. A worth reading book for the fans of Sridevi.

[Diptakirti Chaudhuri]

Origin stories have their charm, how an ordinary person has a brush with an elixir and becomes an all-conquering saviour of the world. What did they do before that? How did superheroes behave before they became super?
Amborish Roychoudhury answers this question for the closest to a superheroine so many of us saw on the Hindi screen and raises the curtain on Sridevi's career in the South. And in a brilliant mix of research and smooth writing, he reveals that what we Hindiwalas thought was the origin story was actually the super-stage.
From a child star, to a teenaged prodigy, to a precocious diva, Sridevi's range in the South was far wider thann what we only got a glimpse of in Bollywood. With Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, a couple of (future) Chief Ministers and uncountable others, she went on to script history before coming to a 'larger market' that was - unfortunately - more respectful of her stardom. So we saw the hysteria around her, but a relatively smaller part of her histrionics, not to mention edgy roles.

Amborish's research is impeccable - made even more impressive because he doesn't speak any of the languages - and he has a knack for storytelling. So he is able to identify butterfly-fluttering-wings events as the precursor to bigger things and that brings a lot of perspective for viewers not familiar with South Indian cinema. And of course, he does a great job of highlighting the key scenes, the most memorable songs, the most important films in the journey. So you're just a Google search away from finding out why Ram Gopal Varma is such a huge Sridevi fan, and what did he really do with his diva when he got a chance to work with her.

Overall, Sridevi: The South Years is a lovely cross-cultural bridge that brings a mostly unseen part of a beloved actress' career to light and manages to convince you that it was as impressive as the one you had seen till now.

[Rahul Vishnoi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amborish, at the starting of his book, explains how tough he had in the beginning of preparations to write a book about an actress of such divine stature. A splashy biography had already been announced and he had it difficult while talking to people who were involved in Sridevi's life.
He then went to Chennai and the book took some other form, now an account of the formative Years of the actress, a backstory if you may. The beginning of a hero.
Amborish starts the book at the seed stage, with the marriage of eponymous actress' parents. He recountes her initial journey and the obstacles she had to face.
The second part of the book largely contains the interviews of people whose life was influenced by the actress, directly or indirectly.
It's an exhaustive account of an actress who shall always remain a legend that went away too soon.

[Abhilash Ruhela · Rating 5 out of 5]

30th Book of 2023

There are few authors who can chose to do easy work considering their immense knowledge base on a subject but they still choose to go ahead and write something from the same field of work which needs a lot of deep diving. Amborish Roychoudhury is one such author. I can say this with utmost clarity even when he is just 2 books old because I have read both his work. His 1st book spoke about the cult movies which shaped Bollywood differently. It was a very interesting book as author talked about movies which we don’t generally speak about.

This time, author went ahead and wrote a biography on Sridevi named “Sridevi: The South Years”. As the name of the title suggests, author takes us through the whole timeline of her journey in South movies about which most of us know nothing at all. He could have easily chosen to write about her Bollywood journey for which researching would have been easy but yet he chose to go the difficult path. This 194-pages book made me feel so small as it gives us such basic information about Sridevi’s formative years that we realize we know so little about the subjects we think we know everything.

Author’s research is evident in every chapter as he has to go through different languages in which movies are made in South- Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. Author is able to provide us a clear distinction between her career in all these languages and it doesn’t become confusing at all. Yes, I agree that reading the name of movies and people from Southern India is tough for rest of us but it’s something about which author could not have done anything to make it easier for us.

The book is not only formative but motivating as well. There are few pointers that I would like to mention which were new and inspiring for me:
• Sridevi started working in film industry right from the age of 4.
• She never took any holidays or leaves for almost 3.5 decades and worked continuously until her marriage had to come in between to make her take a break.
• She never took formal training in acting but learnt everything on set itself from renowned directors of South movies while shooting for her movies.
• Her mother took most of her decisions regarding which movies to choose and she trusted upon her throughout her career.
• She had become popular before Kamal Hassan and Rajanikanth. They became super star later. Hence, she can be called their senior.
• She was able to play almost all kinds of relationship with the same actor in different movies such as- Mother, Sister and daughter as well. This is something not many actors can handle.
• She had become Superstar in Bollywood where she was seen as a diva whereas in South industry, she was considered as an actor-material only.
• She didn’t use to shy away from doing more than 20 movies with any actor. She was okay getting casted with the same actor in similar/different relationships across movies.
• I wasn’t aware that Amitabh Bachchan’s movies used to get remade in South languages back in the day. Sridevi was part of few of them.
• Rajanikanth was originally casted mostly as a villain. He turned into being a full-fledged lead actor only later when the audience response on his win against actor received more applauses.
• Sridevi was able to play a child character as well as an adult role at the age of 14- both at the same time which is a rare phenomenon.

Collectively, the book is full of facts that we are not aware about this personality called Sridevi and why she was able to rule Bollywood as soon as she entered into it. It was because of the immense amount of work she had done in the South. Amborish is able to take us through her whole journey very smoothly. He makes it an easy read with small chapters – each of them focusing on one aspect or phase of her life. I am glad he didn’t touch Bollywood much to excite readers but stayed firm on his intention towards writing this biography with a purpose. Overall, this is an enjoyable read. I give the book 4.5 stars out of 5.

Thanks!

WRITING BUDDHA

[Rajeev Patel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arguably one of the greatest actresses in the history of the Hindi film industry, Sridevi set the screens alight for over forty years. Embracing every one of her varied characters, whether in comedy, action, romance, or drama, her performances gave off an energy that made every dialogue and movement of hers unforgettable.

Highlights -

1) Few people, know that it was her extensive work in the South Indian film industry that made her performances feel effortless. Learning under the tutelage of legendary actors like M.G. Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa, N.T. Rama Rao, Gemini Ganesan and Sivaji Ganesan, as well as working with future legends like Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan & Chiranjeevi.

2) The book has described how she gained popularity at such a young age.

3) The only disadvantage I found in the book was the use of South Indian Language because only a limited number of people would knew it. I struggled with the pronunciations of the many names of people & movies.

4) In the middle of the book are some real photographers of her film journey, which adds as an added advantage.

5) The interviews & insights section from Film makers and Journalists is spot on and such a revelatory and inspiring read.
A killer foreword by Kamal Hassan and Afterword by Ram Gopal Varma.

6) This book looks at her early career as a child artist and leading lady before she became a household name in North India.

7) This book is a glimpse into the making of India’s first female superstar.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful and informative book on the diverse career of the Indian superstar, Sridevi. As a westerner, who only became aware of this supremely gifted actress in one of her final films(English Vinglish), this biography does a great service in introducing her South Indian career, which was much less accessible to westerners, even at the time of her death. Evidently, even Indian audiences are somewhat ignorant of her Career in the South. Fascinating to read who she worked with and what she achieved at ages that would impress anyone. An excellent guide to her body of work, which this cinephile shall eagerly consume.