MUMBAI:
Bollywood diva Sridevi was on Wednesday cremated with full state honours, mourned by millions of fans, at the Vile Parle crematorium.
Sridevi’s filmmaker husband Boney Kapoor performed the last rites at the ceremony. The couple’s daughters, Jahnvi and Khushi, were by his side, said sources close to the family. The actor’s body was brought to the crematorium in an open, flower-bedecked hearse.
Sridevi’s fans were seen queuing up outside Celebrations Sports Club near her residence in Lokhandwala, where her body is kept for ‘darshan’ (public viewing), to pay their last respects to the Bollywood diva.
Long queues of fans holding flowers in their hands and chanting prayers were seen as the body of the actor was brought to the venue at 9 am along with an entourage of family members. Nearly 200 policemen were present at the venue to keep the crowd in check.
While the gates for the general public opened after 10 am, fans from across the country started queuing up to pay their last respects to the “Chandni” star since 6 in the morning. “We thought we would be the first ones to come but people had already reached the venue, around 6 in the morning. I am here because I want my son and daughter to see what a legend Sridevi was,” said 45-year-old city resident Sunil Raghavan.
Among the early callers were Rekha, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, Arbaaz Khan, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Akshaye Khanna, Tabu, Farah Khan, Nitin Mukesh, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vidya Balan, Sushmita Sen, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Madhur Bhandarkar, Deepika Padukone, Sanjay Leela Bhandsali, Jackie Shroff, Farhan Akhtar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, John Abraham, Sulabha Arya, Ajay Devgn and Kajol, among many others.
People have come from as far as Karnataka and Chennai to catch the last glimpse of their screen idol. Among the crowd is a group of fans from Karnataka waiting to pay their respects to the actor.
The body of Sridevi, whose sudden death triggered a frenzy of grief and disbelief, was flown back to Mumbai last night after the Dubai authorities determined that she had accidentally drowned in her hotel bathtub. The family members, including her film-maker husband Boney Kapoor and stepson Arjun Kapoor, brought the body in a private jet after three days of uncertainty over her unexpected death on Saturday in Dubai.
