Who was the better actress? Rekha or Sridevi

Both women ruled Hindi cinema in the 80s so which one do you prefer?

Rekha was more mid to late 70s. But it's a hard question because Rekha got significantly stuck within the courtesan image and never got a variety of roles. Even Dimple Kapadia has better roles/range than Rekha was given.

TBH Sridevi > Rekha but both of them should have done a movie together because they had opposite strengths. Rekha's voice is amazing (Sri's was not), but Sri could connect with all audiences whereas w/Rekha it depended on script. They could have been a force as a duo.

I will say I think Rekha was the only person from the era to avoid using the Gemini Ganesan style of acting, so her acting was more 'underacting' than 'overacting' - she could have done really well internationally.

With people like Priyanka, they tend to be a bit melodramatic, so while PC was really good in Bollywood, she cannot adapt to the sterile Hollywood style of acting. Rekha is crazy melodramatic off-screen but on-screen she really could have done decently in Hollywood too.

Originally posted by: VimalPanMasala

Rekha was more mid to late 70s. But it's a hard question because Rekha got significantly stuck within the courtesan image and never got a variety of roles. Even Dimple Kapadia has better roles/range than Rekha was given.

TBH Sridevi > Rekha but both of them should have done a movie together because they had opposite strengths. Rekha's voice is amazing (Sri's was not), but Sri could connect with all audiences whereas w/Rekha it depended on script. They could have been a force as a duo.

I will say I think Rekha was the only person from the era to avoid using the Gemini Ganesan style of acting, so her acting was more 'underacting' than 'overacting' - she could have done really well internationally.

With people like Priyanka, they tend to be a bit melodramatic, so while PC was really good in Bollywood, she cannot adapt to the sterile Hollywood style of acting. Rekha is crazy melodramatic off-screen but on-screen she really could have done decently in Hollywood too.

Agree with everything except with the Dimple had more range statement

Didn't Manisha Koirala have feuds with both of htem?

Originally posted by: TotalBetty

Agree with everything except with the Dimple had more range statement

I said Dimple was "given" more range because she acted in many arthouse movies (still a thing in the 80s/90s). Even now she's doing roles like in Tenet.

The southern ladies had taken all the commercial films to success, Poonam/Padmini also acted in wife to a hero' roles, so Dimple as the other leading lady of the 80s did several more serious films she championed. Dimple was also "older" so she was not given the dancing roles the others usually did.

Originally posted by: RaniPreityAish

Didn't Manisha Koirala have feuds with both of htem?

Do you mean Mamta Kulkarni? Manisha acted in Laijja with Rekha, and stayed in the same locality as the Kapoors. (Edit: I was wrong, she did randomly lash at them lol)

Originally posted by: RaniPreityAish

Didn't Manisha Koirala have feuds with both of htem?

I just checked and you're right lol, it was Manisha. I am surprised, she never brought it up in her adult life - I'm guessing she randomly lashed out at them when she was in her alcoholic phase. She has a lot of rumors about her personal life even now.

Rekha because Sri Devi had the worst voice. She sounded like a squirrel in the Chal baaz movie off the top of my head. If they were both mute and couldn’t speak, then it would be a tough call for me.

Sridevi, minus the voice.

It's a VERY difficult choice.

Rekha was very good at her diction and her dialogue delivery was better than Sri. Both were versatile, but Rekha was slightly more comfortable in exploring different genres.

However, Sri had overall better screen-presence that grew significantly as her career progressed. Even heroes were struggling to match her screen presence at one point. Also, Sridevi had brilliant comic timing, that Rekha never had.

Sridevi could have pulled a full-fledged villain role if she wanted to. She was terrific in Laadla, where she had a grey role. Rekha sucked in her negative role in that film with Akshay,

Btw, I would like to mention that they were never rivals and were never pitted against each other. Sure, their careers overlapped in the 80s, but Rekha had been working longer than Sri. So they can't be called contemporaries in that sense, as they were never considered for the same roles.

Sridevi's rivals were Jaya Prada, Meenakshi and later Madhuri.