By Ruta Vaidya
Thursday, May 05, 2005

There was a time when Bollywood saw big queens like Madhuri and Sridevi ruling the industry. Such was the dominance and presence that anybody else was hardly noticed.

In the 1970's and 1980's Sridevi was the undisputable 'queen of Bollywood' and the south too. She had acted in more than 250 films before she retired from movies in the 1990's. During the 1980's, her only rivals were Hema Malini and Rekha. Towards the end of her career, there was Madhuri Dixit whose charm had the country 'rocking' to her tunes! Remember 'Ek do teen' and 'Dhak Dhak Karne Laga'?

Before her marriage to Sriram Nene on 17 October 1999, Madhuri won hearts by her brilliant performances in Tezaab (1988), Dil (1990), Beta (1991) and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994), Dil to Pagal Hai (1997) to name a few. Marriage did not completely stop her career as she gave heart-rending performances in Pukar (2000), Lajja (2001) and Devdas (2002).  

Slowly there were new entrants. Manisha, Kajol, Karisma, Raveena, Shilpa, and a whole lot. Out of the competition, very few survived then. Kajol was on the hitlist. With her initial films, flopping at the box-office, her films with Shahrukh Khan turned out to be bigger hits. Then there was no looking back for Kajol. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995) got all the fame for her. Karisma too, at a point of time was a hit at the box-office. Raja Hindustani worked wonders for her. And after that she was noted as one of the highly acclaimed actresses. It was boom time for her with Dil To Pagal Hai (1997) and Zubeida (2001) becoming overnight successes. Raveena also saw a good phase. (After overcoming the bad one, when she was out of the industry, to settle down with Akki). She won her way out with Shool (1999) and Daman (1999), bagging a national award for the latter.

The question here is - Where are these queens today?

Karisma of course has Mere Jeevan Saathi coming up with Akshay Kumar and Amisha Patel. What about our Ms. Dixit? Oops, isn't she Mrs. Nene now?!. That's exactly the point here. After acquiring all their share of stardom, these Bollywood biggies have finally opted to settle down. And marriage completely gives you that privilege. But don't we all miss them on the big screen? Doing small stints on the small screen (Sridevi was seen in the serial Malini Iyer on Sahara TV. Madhuri hosted the show 'Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai' on Sony TV. Karisma Kapoor was seen in 'Karishma - The miracles of Destiny' on Sahara) doesn't satisfy their fans. We all are certainly waiting for them, aren't we? Think they must be training their children to become the stars of tomorrow! Like mom, like children!

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Gallery: Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi, Karisma Kapoor 

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