The body of actor Sridevi was cremated at Vile Parle Seva Samaj Crematorium on Wednesday. Fans and members of the Bollywood fraternity paid their respects to her at Mumbai’s Celebration Sports Club in Lokhandwala earlier in the day after her body had arrived from Dubai on Tuesday night. She was given state honours and her body was wrapped in the Indian tricolour.
Stars who offered their condolences to the actor’s family included Hema Malini, Rekha, Anupam Kher, Aishwarya Rai, Kajol, Tabu, Deepika Padukone, Sidharth Malhotra, Soha Ali Khan, Sushmita Sen, Shahid Kapoor, filmmakers Sanjay Leela Bhansali, David Dhawan and Madhur Bhandarkar.
Bollywood personalities such as actor Vidya Balan, her husband and movie producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, actor-director Farhan Akhtar, actor Dia Mirza, business tycoon Anil Ambani, actors Anupam Kher and Arjun Rampal, and superstar Shah Rukh Khan were in attendance at the Vile Parle crematorium.
Sridevi, who was in Dubai to attend her nephew’s wedding with husband Boney Kapoor and her younger daughter Khushi, died in her hotel room on February 24. While initial reports said she had died of a cardiac arrest, the official forensic report said Sridevi accidentally drowned in the bathtub.
Boney Kapoor had reportedly left Dubai for Mumbai but returned on Saturday evening to surprise Sridevi. The couple spoke for 15 minutes after which Sridevi went to the washroom to get ready for dinner. When she did not come out for a while, Boney Kapoor knocked on the door, and then forced it open to see her “lying motionless in a bathtub full of water”.
A steady stream of celebrities have been arriving at Sridevi’s Mumbai home ever since news of her death broke. The funeral was delayed as the family had to wait for authorities in Dubai to complete formalities.
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