10 Years of English Vinglish: Gauri Shinde Reveals Producers Wanted Sridevi's Item Number In The Film

Sridevi starrer English Vinglish is regarded as one of the best performances of her career. Directed by Gauri Shinde, the film followed Sridevi’s character Shashi Godbole who despite being a successful small entrepreneur has to navigate as a Non-English speaker in a family well-versed with the language. However, Shashi enrols in an English-speaking course to stop her husband and daughter from mocking her lack of English skills and gaining self-respect in the process. As the critically and commercially successful film completes 10 years, Gauri reveals that the journey was an arduous one as the producers wanted an item number by Sridevi as well as a male superstar.

While speaking with Hindustan Times, Gauri shared that nobody was willing to bet on a simple female lead headlining her film and that she had to go against all odds. She said, “My decision to make my film with a female lead was met with a lot of resistance, no doubt, It was the toughest thing to get this film made. It was about a middle-aged woman wearing a saree. These were odds nobody would want to dive into. There was no violence, no sex, nothing that would set the ball rolling easily for someone. We went through hell."

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Adding to this, Gauri disclosed further, “They wanted a superstar as her husband, then said we should not shoot in New York. They wanted me to compromise, and then they wanted Sridevi to dance because she is Sridevi. They thought she should do an item song. I said I would rather put the film aside and not make it. Then Balki (R Balki, filmmaker-husband) decided to produce it ourselves, and that’s how our production house was formed."

Interestingly, Sridevi’s character was written by Shinde, inspired by her mother. The film marked Sridevi’s return to filmmaking after a 15-year hiatus post-Judaai (1997). It featured Adil Hussain, French actor Mehdi Nebbou, and Priya Anand. Amitabh Bachchan made a cameo appearance in Hindi, whose portions were reshot for the Tamil-dubbed version with Ajith Kumar replacing him. English Vinglish became a major financial success as well, grossing Rs 102 crores against a budget of Rs 10 crores.