Sridevi’s sari being auctioned a year after her death

A handwoven Kota sari, one of Sridevi’s favourites, is on auction online ahead of her first death anniversary today. The amount will be directed towards a cause.According to Parisera, a Chennai-based online platform, which specialises in Indian handicrafts and is hosting the auction ‘Being Generous, With Sridevi’, the Kapoor family has decided to donate the proceeds from the auction to Concern India Foundation, a charitable trust which has programmes for the benefit of women, children, the differently abled, the underprivileged and the elderly and works in the fields of education, health and community development.The bid started at Rs 40,000 a few days ago, is underway and had reached Rs 130,000.A tweet from Parisera on February 20 invited bids from the sari.A description of the Kota sari reads: “It is light, bright and emanates the perfect essence of Sridevi.”Officials at Parisera said they were proud to play a simple yet strong role in the auction of Sridevi’s sari, and invited admirers to “bid for a part of the actress’s legacy while making a contribution towards the betterment of society”.To mark a year since Sridevi left, Boney and his daughters - Janhvi and Khushi - held a puja in Chennai earlier this month.Sridevi, Bollywood’s first female superstar, died aged 54 on February 24, 2018, by way of accidental drowning in a bathtub in a Dubai hotel, leaving the film industry, her family and legions of fans in a state of shock.Sridevi’s tryst with the arclights began at a tender age of four with a devotional film Thunaivan. There was no stopping her from experimenting with genres, languages, looks and characters, leading her to become one of the most formidable actresses of the 1980s and 1990s in Bollywood.She slipped into myriad roles - whether the double role in ChaalBaaz, as a woman with retrograde amnesia in Sadma, a shape-shifting woman in Nagina, a goofy crime journalist in Mr. India, the warm mother act in English Vinglish or the fierce and revengeful mom in Mom - as effortlessly as she won hearts with expressive eyes, comic timing and her fluid dancing skills. – IANS