Karan Johar: Sridevi Is The Reason For My Obession With Hindi Cinema

Kara Johar grew up watching Sridevi's films much like most of us, the director revealed that the reason behind his obsession with Hindi cinema is Sridevi herself. While unveiling Sridevi - The External Screen Goodess written by Satyarth Nayak, in Mumbai Karan revealed he was her biggest fan and fell madly in love with her.

He recalled Sridevi's presence being one reason that fulled his passion for Hindi cinema while others his age at the time didn't feel the same. He added, "For me, today and every moment of Sridevi takes me back to my entire childhood and my entire being and my passionate love for movies and my absolute obsession with Hindi cinema. I think she has a large part to do with it. I can't recall the moment when I fell madly in love with her. I was her biggest fan,"

Karan then shared an incident from childhood when his father, Yash Chopra had gotten upset with him for watching Mr India over Mukkadar Ka Faisla. "My father was releasing a film on the same day as Mr India. He had released Mukkadar Ka Faisla, which was directed by Prakash Mehra and my father was very hurt with me because on the opening day I went running to see Mr India and I did not see my father's film. Sridevi had the magical quality of connecting with you. She just seemed unattainable, inaccessible, just the way you want your stars to be, and I had put her up on a pedestal. She became like (that) with every movie."

Karan was supposed to work with the evergreen actress for his last release, Kalank however before they could finish shooting for the film, Sridevi has passed away. Talking about the chance to direct her, Karan revealed he wouldn't have been able to do justice. But he does regret not listening to her suggestions for the film after reading the script. "When I narrated the film (referring to Kalank) that she was meant to do before she passed away, she read the script, she made her notes and she told me a few brilliant things, which I wish we had listened to."

Sridevi who passed away last year in February was best known for films like Sadma, Mr India, Lamhe, English Vinglish, Mom and more. The book Sridevi - The External Screen Goodess was also released in Delhi two days ago by Deepika Padukone in Delhi.