I’ve refused many films in my career but I don’t know why people keep talking about Baahubali alone: Sridevi
Actress Sridevi is currently busy with the promotions of her upcoming movie MOM, which she is producing as well. While attending a press meet recently in Andhra Pradesh, Sridevi opened up about why she declined the offer to play Sivagami’s character in Baahubali.
SS Rajamouli had initally approached Sridevi for the role of Sivagami in Baahubali. Reportedly, Sridevi had quoted a hefty sum as remuneration and eventually the offer reached Ramya Krishnan’s hands. Even after the release of both the parts, talks about why Sridevi refused the Baahubali offer has not yet settled down.
In the recent press meet, Sridevi clarified about all the confusions regarding the same.
She said, “I have refused many films in my career but I don’t know why this alone is being talked about. And that too, both the parts of the film have come out and now people are talking about this. I have my own reasons for refusing it. There are various talks regarding my remuneration and my so-called demands like a chartered flight or an entire floor in a hotel. Till now I have not made any comment on this. But I would like to state that all of them are false. I have acted in 300 films till now and could I have accomplished this if I were to be demanding such things? This is totally baseless. My husband is also a producer and I know the problems of a producer. I had never made any such demands. I also heard that director SS Rajamouli had spoken about this. As far as I have heard about Rajamouli, he is a dignified gentleman. There could have been a miscommunication. I am extremely saddened by his comment in a public platform”.
A few days ago, SS Rajamouli in an interview had remarked that they were fortunate that Sridevi opted out of the Baahubali franchise. He said, “After hearing a series of wishes from Sridevi, we thought that it would be above our budget to meet her demands. Then we approached Ramya Krishnan and she proved herself fantastic and we now feel, we were lucky that we dropped the idea of having Sridevi in our film. The movie wouldn’t have been like that had if she has done Sivagami’s role. Sridevi is known for subtle performances and she doesn’t have a powerful voice. Whereas, Ramya Krishnan has a terrific screen presence, voice and is capable of delivering a power packed performance.”
As per the director, Sridevi had made some unreasonable demands including booking an entire floor in a five-star hotel and business class tickets from Mumbai to Hyderabad everytime she flied down for shooting. The actress even demanded a share from the Hindi version of Baahubali. The makers of Baahubali could not accept her demands and eventually approached Ramya Krishnan for the role.
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Meanwhile, Sridevi’s upcoming movie Mom is gearing up for release on July 7. The movie, directed by Ravi Udayawar is also the 300th film of Sridevi. It is being released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages.
