Jaya Prada Recalls She 'Never Even Made Eye Contact' With Sridevi

She clarified they never had any 'personal grudges', and that she misses Sridevi and wishes they could talk

Legendary actor Jaya Prada spoke about her rumoured rivalry with Sridevi, and clarified that they never had any 'personal grudge' against each other. During her appearance on Indian Idol 12, she said, "I can say that I am the luckiest person. We never had a personal grudge against each other but our chemistry never matched. We never even made eye contact despite playing perfect sisters on screen. We competed with each other, be it with dresses or dance. Every time we met, the directors or actors would introduce us on set. We would just greet each other and move on."

Jaya Prada and Sridevi frequently worked together on various films including Maqsad, Tohfa. She also recounted an anecdote from the sets of Maqsad when Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra locked the actors in a room in an attempt to make them talk.

"I still remember during the shoot of the Maqsad film, Jeetu Ji and Rajesh Khanna Ji locked both of us in one makeup room for an hour where they both felt that if they lock us together, we will start a conversation with each other but we both did not even say a word and then the superstars of Bollywood gave up on us," she said.

Jaya added that she was disheartened by the news of Sridevi's passing and that she misses her because she feels alone, "When I got the news how she has left us in between, it still upsets me and I miss her a lot because I feel alone and through this platform, I would also like to say that if somewhere she is listening to me I would just say that I wish we could talk to each other."

Jaya and Sridevi were both popular actors in the 1980s, in Bollywood and in the South. Jaya was relaunched with the Hindi film Kaamchor by director director K. Vishwanath but she started her career with a three-minute dance number in the Telugu film Bhoomi Kosam.

Sridevi marked her debut at the age of 4 with the Tamil film Kandhan Karunai and first appeared in Solva Sawan, after a key role in the 1975 release Julie. The comedy-drama English Vinglish and the thriller titled Mom were her last appearances on screen before her untimely death on 24 February 2018. She is survived by husband Boney Kapoor, and her children Khushi and Janhvi Kapoor.