SRIDEVI’ S LAST JOURNEY DIMS THE LIGHT IN INDIA
Fans and celebrities shed tears of shared grief; actor is given full state honours at her funeral
Fans thronged the streets of Mumbai and waited in long queues to offer their last respects to Sridevi, whose death on February 24 in Dubai shocked this whole country.
Bollywood figures started arriving in the morning at Celebration Sports Club in Lokhandwala, where her mortal remains had been kept. Nearly 500 policemen were present at the venue. The authorities had to resort to mild lathi charge as well.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan came with Jaya Bachchan. Actors Jaya Prada, Jackie Shroff, Satish Kaushik, Rekha, Hema Malini, Ajay Devgn, Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan were present. Younger stars Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez, and Shraddha Kapoor came, too.
For her last journey, Sridevi was dressed in a red Benarasi sari. On the way to the crematorium, the actor was wrapped in the Indian tricolour, and given full state honours, including a gun salute and a military band.
Actor Arjun Kapoor, Sridevi’s stepson, stood with father Boney Kapoor and half-sisters Janhvi and Khushi. Sonam Kapoor was seen consoling the two.
Vidya Balan, who came with her husband, producer Sidhharth Roy Kapoor, left the venue in tears. All the fans were tearful as well.
Jatin Valmiki, a visually challenged fan, had come from Uttar Pradesh. Sridevi had helped him get a waiver of ₹1 lakh in hospital fees for his brother’s brain tumour operation. Forty buses full of fans had come from Chennai and Hyderabad to get a glimpse of Sridevi, who was born in Tamil Nadu and started her acting career in south India.