Everybody in the nation had fallen in love with Sridevi when she first appeared on film about 24 years ago wearing a white salwar-kameez and flashing her contagious grin as and in Chandni. In addition to being one of Sridevi’s most well-known performances, Chandni’s costumes have come to be recognised as classics. But did you know that when the movie was being made, Sridevi’s mother didn’t like the clothes, particularly the ones that were white?
Pamela Chopra claimed in the recently released docuseries The Romantics that Sridevi expressed reservations about the white dresses while her mother vehemently disagreed with them. Sridevi was reported by Pamela in the first episode as saying, “Yash ji, why this all white? This is so dull.” Yash claimed that he persuaded Sridevi in an old interview with Karan Johar by saying, “I have faith in you as an actor, in your performance, if you have faith in me as a director, I like to present you as I want.”
Her mother then appeared. Pamela remarked, “And the mother came. ‘Yash Chopra ji, white in our community, is not considered festive at all.’ Yash then said,‘Dekho Mummy ji, this is my vision.’ Somehow he managed to convince her, but she was not completely convinced.” The white garments are now among the most well-known from that film.
Anil Kapoor claimed in the same episode that Yash Chopra asked Boney Kapoor to approach Sridevi for Chandni because she was a “top star” at the time and he didn’t know how to approach her. “He asked my brother (Boney Kapoor) to speak to her. So my brother flew down to Chennai to talk to her mother. It didn’t matter to her who Yash Chopra is who has made such great films, it was just the money,” he disclosed.