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Former film journalist and critic Rajeev Masand has interviewed several celebrities over the past few years but for him, one of the most memorable interviews was when he met his idol, actor Sridevi in 1996 during the shoot of the movie Judaai. He shared that the actor was not very fond of talking and wasn’t really comfortable around many journalists.
In the podcast Back To The Start with Janice Sequeira, Rajeev recalled meeting Sridevi in Hyderabad and how she pretended to read a book so she didn’t have to talk much. “I remember meeting Sridevi during Judaai and at that time, we used to do set visits and it was in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. I was taken there with a cartload of journalists to interview Sridevi and I remember she was on sets. I remember her being quite terrified of seeing so many journalists,” recalled Rajeev about the actor, who passed away in 2018.
He added, “I remember her politely mustering up a smile. It used to be like the celebrity is sitting there and all the journalists would be here and one by one you would be taken. I remember her reading a book or pretending to read a book because she didn’t want to engage. She was really shy and it didn’t come from a place of arrogance or disrespect. It was not something she loved doing. She just didn’t love talking and you could see she was not really reading a book. It was a clutch to not have to look at the journalist.”
Further painting a clear picture of what film journalism used to look like back in the day, Rajeev said that actors would often mingle with journalists on sets, but Sridevi didn’t change in all the years of being a star.
“This was a time when it was not so stage managed. It was a time when the actor would come, sit with you, engage you in middle of shots and then one by one we would one by one get the interview. Sridevi was not social. It was so sweet to see her with a book and not really reading a book. She didn’t want to engage with you,” said Rajeev.
He said that conversations for print interviews are manageable, as opposed to television interviews where it is clearly evident to the audience when the conversation goes out of balance.”
“I remember when the interview happened, I probably spoke way more than she did but she was lovely. You know it came from a place of social awkwardness and not being more comfortable speaking. And then years later, one got more opportunities to interview her and that hadn’t changed. She just didn’t love talking, some people don’t love talking and you make more effort. But then it was print and you can do so much but when television came it was so hard when someone is not speaking, then you talking more than them is just to fill those ugly spaces,” he said.
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