By Quaid Najmi
Pune/Mumbai, May 21 (IANS) A group of three die-hard fans of the late actress Sridevi managed to floor her husband Boney Kapoor and actress-daughter Janhvi at their home here in Andheri and returned with sweet memories of a lifetime.
Pune-based Paridhi Bhati, 26, Bhavana Varma, 33, Tonu Sojatia, 29, were specially invited by the Kapoor family for tea and for a 'darshan' of their car, a Honda City, at their home on Sunday.
Though this particular car is quite common on the roads, the women possess one which is very unique and eye-catching since its exterior is designed as a full-fledged 'moving tribute' to their idol Sridevi, who passed away in February.
"I designed the multi-hued vinyl-prints, which are long-lasting, and we three took up almost a month to properly make-up the car as a gesture of love, for the greatest of actresses, Sridevi, adored by millions even today," Sojatia told IANS.
Working as social media PR with the National Film Archives of India (NFAI), Sojatia, along with her two friends, even designed a special logo incorporating an image of Sridevi - 'Flying BhaToPa', which the Kapoors admired.
Actually, the 'Flying BhaToPa' participated in the Times Women's Drive, an all-women safari in which female drivers from all over India drove to Goa on April 29.
The three drove a return distance of 1,250 km on the Pune-Goa-Pune route over three days of the exclusive all-women safari.
In the safari, the 'Flying BhaToPa' car became the showstopper, standing out in the crowd with its gleaming white background and a colourful tribute to Sridevi pasted on its exteriors, the bumper, roof, bonnet and doors.
"The Sridevi theme shows various moods of Sridevi - love, anger, innocence and dance - with corresponding images from some of her most well-known films in Hindi and south Indian languages, including 'Lamhe', 'Chandni'," said Sojatia.
The car tribute covers Sridevi's entire film journey from the age of 3 to her last film "Mom", with its shattering dialogue - "Iss desh me rape to kar sakte hai, lekin rapist ko thappad nahi maar sakte" - "Stop blaming the victim. NO means NO."
Having heard about the 'Flying BhaToPa' uniquely designed car, Boney himself called to reschedule for a more leisurely Sunday morning tete-a-tete over tea.
"We were thrilled. They hosted us for nearly 40 minutes, came down to see our car and admired it very much. With his vast film knowledge, Boney Kapoor even guided us how to click pictures for the best possible angles and outcome. They insisted we stay back for lunch but we had time constraints, so we enjoyed delicious coffee with them," Sojatia said.
All through the meeting with the three fans, Boney referred to his late wife as 'Sri' and introduced them to an unknown facet of her life: Sridevi was a very good painter and there are two majestic paintings by her which adorn the Kapoors' living room.
After generally small talk revolving mostly around Sridevi, with Janhvi choosing to be the perfect hostess, it was time to leave.
"We presented Boney Kapoor with some images from Sridevi's earliest Bollywood films, 'Solva Saavan' (1979), when he first fell in love with his future wife. We also gifted a few images of one of her early films as a four-year old child artiste in 'Kumarasambhavam' (1969) to Janhvi and Khushi as a remembrance for their illustrious mother," Sojatia said.
"We consider it an honour that Boney Kapoor invited us to meet and acknowledged our efforts. He is such a humble, down-to-earth personality and even Janhvi is such a doting daughter. For us it was a touching and emotional meeting. We miss Sridevi," Sojatia said.
(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)
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