Three die-hard fans of the late actress Sridevi managed to surprise her husband Boney Kapoor and actress-daughter Janhvi at their home in Mumbai and returned with sweet memories of a lifetime.
The Pune-based Paridhi Bhati, 26, Bhavana Varma, 33, Tonu Sojatia, 29, were specially invited by the Kapoor family for tea and for a ‘darshan’ [viewing] of the trio’s car, a Honda City, at their home on Sunday.
The car is unique because its exterior is designed as a full-fledged ‘moving tribute’ to their idol Sridevi, who died 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,” said Sojatia.
Working as social media PR with the National Film Archives of India (NFAI), Sojatia, along with her two friends, also designed a special logo incorporating an image of Sridevi — ‘Flying BhaToPa’.
The ‘Flying BhaToPa’ members 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 1,250km on the Pune-Goa-Pune route over three days of the exclusive all-women safari.
“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 and Chandni,” said Sojatia.
The car tribute covers Sridevi’s entire film journey from the age of three to her last film Mom.
Having heard about the ‘Flying BhaToPa’ uniquely designed car, Sridevi’s husband Kapoor himself called them over 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 coffee with them,” Sojatia said.
All through their meeting, Kapoor 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 paintings by her which adorn the Kapoors’ living room.
“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 artist in Kumarasambhavam (1969) to [daughters] 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.
