‘Shocked and Hurt,’ Retorts Sridevi to Rajamouli’s Remarks on Bahubali Role

The ongoing issue over Sridevi rejecting the role in Bahubali has reached its peak with director Rajamouli baring the facts in an interview to a daily that the veteran actress had asked for more fees among other demands.

“After hearing series of wishes from her, our team got fed up. We also thought that it would be above our budget to meet her demands. Then we approached Ramya Krishna and she proved herself fantastic and we now feel, we were lucky that we dropped the idea of having Sridevi in our film.”

The second part of the view that they were lucky to drop Sridevi must have irked any actor and the retort was equally strong. “I was shocked and hurt by his interview. Rajamouli is a calm and dignified person. I was very happy to work with him. But, the way he spoke about the issue made me feel very sad,” said the veteran actress who grew up in films from the age of 5 to 54, her current age.

Despite busy with the promotions of her upcoming film ‘Mom’, the actress confirmed that she did turn down the offer in Bahubali for her own reasons and not because of the remuneration.

“I would like to talk about this. It has become such a big issue and people are imagining things [as to why I have said no the film]. I have my own reasons. First of all two parts of Baahubali have come out, and now they are asking me. There are many films, I refused. Why are they not talking about it? Why only this film? I will go there and talk about it,” she told the Telugu news channel NTV.

On Rajamouli remarks, she said, “I don’t know if the producer wrongly told Rajamouli that I made all these demands but it is not in good taste to speak like this.”