Sridevi's Competition

By: Anonymous (not me)

Both Sridevi and Jayaprada had hits with Jatender (AKA Jeetu) in movies of the early 80s, some of them starring both Sri and Jaya. The masala scripts of these Telugu remakes also helped. During these times there was also some talk of Jeetu vying for No.1 position (the talk which changes every friday to friday anyway !). I think the movie which put Sri firmly on top was "Nagina"(1986), till then almost all Sri and Jaya movies were mostly hits and some flops. Even "Tohfa" starring both of them did well. Till Nagina, both Sri and Jaya were mainly glamour heroines in Masala hits. But Nagina changed this. Sridevi had a major role in it, acted and danced well--the movie was a hit. At the same time, the movies of Sri and Jaya with Jeetu had started flopping a bit like Sarfarosh, Pathal Bhairavi, etc. Sri also had a flop with the Big B called "Inquilab".

If their was anyone who even came close to the incandescence of Sridevi during her decade-long unparalleled rule, it was Jaya Prada. But Jaya lacked Sridevi’s seductive appeal. After three years of a long pithed battle with Sridevi, the latter won. The films that followed like 'Tohfa', 'Mawaali' and 'Sanjog' helped her inch closer towards Sridevi but could not reach her goal. She failed to understand that at the time when she was running around trees with Jeetendra, Shashi Kapoor and Dharmendra, the baton had slipped to the Jackies, Anils and Sunny’s.

Then came "Mr. India" in 1987, and Sri was firmly on top. Also, after Jaya, there was not much competition for Sridevi from any other heroines until Madhuri Dixit came in the scene. I don't think Meenakshi was ever considered for No.1. She was best known as an "ice maiden" till Rajkumar Santoshi came and gave a new direction to her sagging career. Some time back, there was some discussion about when Madhuri became No.1. The time must have been pretty close to the Beta success. If one wishes to further narrow the time frame, then I would go for the Filmfare awards. "Beta" definetly put Madhuri in a strong position. I guess "Beta" was a hit around the time "RKRCKR" was a big flop (around 1993). Sri's No.1 standing was virtually gone with this huge flop. But still, Madhuri didn't have enough hits for the magazines to officially acknowledge her as No.1. Before she could even entrench her position at No.1, Madhuri started getting competetion from Juhi Chawla (as far as the box office is concerned) with hits like "Bol Radha Bol" and in late 1993 with hits like "HHPRK" and then "Darr". Suddenly, the magazines started publishing stuff like "Three stars on the rat race" et al. They even had an Issue (Filmfare or Movie I am not sure) with all three of them on the cover! The topic being the "No.1" position.
The reason why Madhuri was not being clearly considered for No.1 was because she used to give one big hit a year but that came along with a number of flops like "Zindagi Ek Jua" (1993), "Paapi Duniya"(1993), etc. So, at the beginning of '94, we had Sridevi going down terribly (who had not lost it all yet, at least according to the magazines but who was desperately in need of a hit). Madhuri (riding high on the one hit a year success, the latest being Beta) and Juhi really going well with 3 recent hits under her belt. Actually, Sridevi also started rebounding with a hit like "Laadla" in 1994 and an average hit in "Gumrah" (with very good acting reviews, of course) but then came the JOLT. What was it? HUM AAPKE HAIN KAUN. This came around fall of '94 and the rest is history, I mean of Madhuri being officially considered as No.1. Madhuri retained this position till the end of 1996. Why 1996? Because when talks about her bad box office performance in 1996 started spreading and Karisma got good reviews for her restrained performance in the hit of the year namely Raja Hindustani, it was over for Madhuri.