'I have one more daughter': Meet Sridevi's 'third child', award-winning actress, late star's last message to her was...

Sridevi is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Indian cinema. Over a 50-year career that began as a child artiste and included some masterful performances, Sridevi established herself as a rare actress who could balance the nuances of acting with the demands of commercial cinema. Her two daughters – Janhvi and Khushi Kapoor – have followed in her footsteps and started acting too. But months before her untimely death, Sridevi had revealed she had a ‘third child’ too, and an award-winning actress at that.

Who is Sridevi’s ‘third daughter’?

In 2017, Sridevi worked in Mom. It was to be her last film. The film also starred Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Akshaye Khanna, as well as Pakistani actors Adnan Siddiqui and Sajal Aly. Sajal played Sridevi’s daughter in the film and the two actresses developed quite a strong bond while working together. Sridevi, 53 at the time, said she had become very fond of the 23-year-old Sajal. During the film’s promotions, she told media, “Sajal is like my third child. Now, I feel I have one more daughter.”

Sajal Aly was born in Lahore in 1994 and began her acting career at the age of 15 with the TV show Nadaaniyan. She earned praise for her roles in Nanhi (which earned her her first Best Actress nomination at 19), Sannata, and Khuda Dekh Raha Hai. In 2017-18, she won the Hum Award for Best Actress Popular for Yaqeen Ka Safar and Best Actress for O Rangreza. Mom remains her only Hindi film till date. She currently stars in the TV show Zard Patton Ka Bunn.

Sridevi’s last message to Sajal Aly

In an interview to Hindustan Times weeks after Sridevi’s death in February 2018, Sajal Aly said she was in shock. “I am in a state of shock right now. It feels like losing my mother again.” The actress said that she missed meeting Sridevi at the Masala Awards in Dubai, which she could not attend. Afterwards, Sridevi texted her saying, ‘I missed you, beta’. The actress recalled, “That’s the last message I have from her. After that, we spoke quite a few times in the last two months. But sadly, when she called me a few days back, I missed her call because I was shooting and I was thinking of calling her back, but I guess I took too much time to do that.”

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