Sridevi’s ‘Shashi ’ Connection

They were the two iconic Indian actors whom the Academy Awards paid a homage at the Oscars ceremony earlier this week.

While Shashi Kapoor and Sridevi are as removed from one another as possible, they do have something in common besides the Kapoor surname that marriage to Boney Kapoor bequeathed on  Sridevi.

Before they grew up to be major stars doing films in multiple languages(English and Hindi for Shashi,  Tamil, Telugu and Hindi forSridevi) they were both child artistes and played their first parts as children. Sridevi was all of 4 when she acted for the first time in the Tamil film Kandan Karunai. Shashi Kapoor was 10 when he played the younger version of his eldest brother Raj Kapoor in Aag.

And though Shashi Kapoor and Sridevi never worked together they came close to doing so in 1991 when Shashi turned director with Ajooba. He wanted to cast Sridevi opposite Amitabh Bachchan. However Sridevi turned down the role and it went to DimpleKapadia.

And yes, Sridevi played a  character called Shashi in one of her most memorable films English Vinglish.