Sridevi fainted, lost a tooth after crash diet forced by Ram Gopal Varma, reveals director Pankaj Parashar

Sridevi fainted, lost a tooth after crash diet forced by Ram Gopal Varma, reveals director Pankaj Parashar

Veteran filmmaker Pankaj Parashar has opened up about the troubled journey of his film Meri Biwi Ka Jawab Nahin, starring the late Sridevi and Akshay Kumar. Though the movie was shot in the early 1990s, it faced numerous production setbacks and was finally released in 2004—well past its time. In a candid interview with Friday Talkies, Parashar placed a significant portion of the blame on fellow director Ram Gopal Varma.

According to Parashar, Varma constantly pressured Sridevi to lose weight during the production. “Ram Gopal Varma kept telling her, ‘lose weight, lose weight,’” Parashar said. This pressure pushed Sridevi into a crash diet that had serious health consequences. “She stopped consuming salt, her blood pressure dropped, and she fainted. She hit a table, was unconscious for 20 minutes, and even lost a tooth,” he recalled.

This unfortunate incident derailed the entire production schedule. “The shoot was going smoothly until this happened. After that, everything went off the rails. The financier backed out, and tragically, the producer also passed away. I eventually had to abandon the project,” Parashar said, citing the series of misfortunes that plagued the film.

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Meri Biwi Ka Jawab Nahin was ultimately released in 2004, but by then, the audience had moved on. The film was declared outdated and failed to make an impact at the box office.

Parashar and Sridevi had previously worked together in the 1989 blockbuster ChaalBaaz, where she played dual roles opposite Rajinikanth and Sunny Deol. The film remains one of Sridevi’s most iconic performances and is a remake of Hema Malini’s Seeta Aur Geeta.

Sridevi also had a complicated professional history with Ram Gopal Varma. They collaborated on the 1991 thriller Kshana Kshanam, but tensions flared years later when RGV titled a film Sridevi, which portrayed a teenager’s infatuation with an older woman. The actress responded by serving him a legal notice in 2014. Varma has often spoken publicly about his admiration and crush on the late star, which many found inappropriate.