Sridevi Kapoor, a Bollywood actress who starred in hundreds of films and was known as India’s first female superstar, died on Saturday in Dubai. She was 54.
The Dubai police said on Monday that she had drowned
in a hotel bathtub after losing consciousness. Initial reports had said that the cause of death was cardiac arrest.
Sridevi, who went by a single name professionally, was one of the only Bollywood actresses to headline box-office hits without a man beside her in a leading role.
Sridevi, who went by a single name professionally, was one of the only Bollywood actresses to headline box-office hits without a man beside her in a leading role.
“Saddened by the untimely demise of noted actor Sridevi,” Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, wrote on Twitter. “She was a veteran of the film industry, whose long career included diverse roles and memorable performances.”
Among her best-known works were “Mr. India” (1987), “ChaalBaaz” (1989), “Chandni” (1989) and “Lamhe” (1991). After marrying the film producer Boney Kapoor in 1996, she retired from acting for 15 years but returned with “English Vinglish” (2012).
Her final film, “Mom” — in which she played a teacher seeking to avenge the rape of her stepdaughter — was released last year. In its review of the movie, The Times of India wrote that Sridevi “demonstrates why she is the high-priestess” of Indian cinema.
The stepdaughter was played by the Pakistani actress Sajal Ali, whose mother died during filming. On Sunday, Ms. Ali posted four words on Instagram: “Lost my mom again.”


In a tribute on Instagram, Shekhar Kapur, the director of “Mr. India,” called Sridevi “the most exciting actress I ever worked with.”
“There was not a moment on screen that you did not have the audience in your grip,” he wrote. “Be it an emotion, a comic moment, a dance.”
The Indian news website The Quint reported that when Sridevi performed “Hawa Hawai,” the signature song of “Mr. India,” Mr. Kapur “didn’t know whether to take close-ups of her face to capture those incredible expressions or long shots to capture her dance moves.”
Shree Amma Yanger Ayyappan was born in Tamil Nadu in 1963. In 1971, seven years before her debut in a lead Bollywood role, she won a Kerala state award for best child artist, for her performance in “Poompatta,” a Malayalam-language film. In 1976, she starred in the Tamil film “Moondru Mudichu” as a widower’s new wife. She was just 13.
Her first marriage, to the actor Mithun Chakraborty, ended in divorce. She is survived by her second husband, Mr. Kapoor, and two daughters, Jhanvi and Khushi.
The film critic Rajeev Masand wrote on Twitter that he had “never known anyone who was so painfully shy, so quiet off screen, who just transformed into a force of nature when the cameras came on.”
“She was an interviewer’s nightmare,” he wrote, “but the movie-buff’s dream.”

 -The New York Times