26-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Ram Gopal Varma forced Sridevi to lose weight, she went on crash diet, fainted, hit a table: Director Pankaj Parashar
Did you know late star Sridevi also acted with Akshay Kumar once? It was in a movie Meri Biwi Ka Jawab Nahi. It was shot in the early 90s but hit multiple roadblocks during production and finally released in 2004, which the public declared stale on arrival. In a new interview with Friday Talkies, director Pankaj Parashar has revealed what exactly led to all those delays and why filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma was also to blame. Sridevi starred alongside Akshay Kumar in the delayed film Meri Biwi Ka Jawab Nahi, which released in 2004.
Ram Gopal Varma forced Sridevi to lose weight?
He said that RGV was trying to get Sridevi to lose weight for the movie. "Ek film aur aayi thi sir meri Biwi Ka Jawab Nahin woh kaafi lambe samay tak hold hui. Maine kya bola, har picture ki janampatri hoti hai (Another film of mine had come out, Meri Biwi Ka Jawab Nahin — it was held up for quite a long time. What I say is, every film has its own destiny). It was going well that my friend Ram Gopal Varma, I blame him totally for that because he kept telling Sridevi, 'lose weight, lose weight, lose weight.'
'She went on a crash course, oh, and when she does that, and she stopped salt, BP drops and she faints. Toh she fainted and hits the table and she was unconscious for 20 minutes and she lost a tooth. Toh hamara poora schedule gaya. Otherwise, the movie was going anyway because of that and she hit her face and all that and because of that it went off the rails. Financier went away, producer died. All those things happen, hmm. Toh maine chhod di picture, kya karein (So I gave up, what to do)?'
Sridevi's work with Parashar and RGV
Parashar worked with Sridevi in hit movie Chalbaaz. It also starred Rajinikanth and Sunny Deol and was a remake of Hema Malini's Seeth Aur Geeta. Sridevi had double roles in the movie.
Sridevi and Ram Gopal Varma also worked together in 1991 movie Kshana Kshanam. In 2014, Sridevi even slapped a legal notice on him. The controversy started after RGV changed the name of his Telugu film Savitri to Sridevi. The film dealt with a teenage boy's infatuation with an older woman. RGV had, in the past, talked about the "crush" he had on the actor.
Sridevi died in Dubai in 2018. She was married to producer Boney Kapoor and had two daughters, Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor.
