Sridevi died on February 24th

THE media complained that Sridevi was such an enigma, so intensely reserved. She couldn’t deny it. She felt uncomfortable talking to reporters, and for years avoided promotions and parties for her films. When she left her make-up van for a shoot, an assistant holding her pallu out of the dust, her bouncers would shout: “No pictures when she walks!”, and so the lensmen would wait, in a tizzy, for the moment when she would pause and turn her perfect face to them. But still she preferred not to talk. In her heyday in the 1980s and early 1990s all questions about her plans, her sex appeal or her love interests were deflected with a coy “Ask Mummy”. For Mummy, in the traditional way, handled all her property and tax affairs, including the negotiations with besotted producers over how many lakh of rupees she would get for every film. At her first screen-call, at the age of four, she hid in her mother’s sari out of shyness. She seemed to go on hiding there for much of her career.