How Sridevi Broke the Rules!

Actor Adil Hussain, whose film ‘52 Blue’ is set to be screened at the upcoming edition of the London Indian Film Festival, is walking down the memory lane to the early 2010s.

The actor spoke with media, and shared his experience of working with a creative ‘giant’ like Sridevi in the film, who at that time had close to 300 films under her belt.

Talking about the same, Adil told, “‘English Vinglish’ was my third film in Hindi language. So it was already a phenomenon that I'm working with a person, Sridevi, who had done, I think that was her 300th film or something. My fondest memory would probably be her humility to ask an actor to work together, to do a scene, she would suggest something and I would suggest something, and say, ‘Oh, can we do it this way?’. She would go, ‘Yeah, let's do it this way’. She was always ready to improvise”.

He further mentioned that the actress belonged to the rare breed of accomplished actors who never fed the feudal system in the film industry, and rather worked exactly opposite to the norms.

He shared, “There is a huge feudal system, you know, a hierarchical system that we follow, stars are stars and newcomers are newcomers, there is no dialogue happening. I'm not saying that is always the case, but that's the case most of the time. But here, I'm a newcomer in the film world, and then I'm working with a giant, as accomplished as Sridevi, and there she comes and consults, we consult each other to see if we can do a scene a particular way. It was very open communication with her for the greater good of film”, he added.

London Indian Film Festival is set to be held from July 9 to July 19, 2026.