Meenampatti residents mourn Sridevi's death

Meenampatti, a remote village in Virudhunagar district, is the native of the Lady Superstar of India, Sridevi, who had passed away on Saturday night. People of the village who still remembered her paid tribute to her, on Sunday. 

When the people of Meenampatti village came to know about her death they collected a-childhood photo and family photo of the actress, and paid floral tributes to her on Sunday morning.

The villagers also recollected her fond memories when she visited her village. Speaking to DT NEXT, Sreenivasan, a close family friend of Sridevi for over 30 years, said that her family was into politics long before and was one of the wealthy families in the village. 

Her uncle, Ramasamy Naidu, elder brother of Sridevi's father, Ayyappa Naidu, won the MLA seat from Sivakasi in 1977 representing Janata Party. Earlier he had served as Chairman of Sivakasi Panchayat Union for 25 years. 

Her father Ayyappa Naidu too had contested in the 1989 assembly election from Sivakasi on behalf of Congress, but he lost. Sridevi campaigned for her father in 1989 and that was the last time she had visited the village. 

During Sridevi's visit she had stayed for 10 days and visited every house. She liked her village and was curious to know more about her family ancestry. However, after her father's death in 1990 and her mother's death in 1996 she had completely lost touch with Meenampatti. Even though she hasn’t visited the village in the recent past, people loved her and the memories of her visit from around 30 years back, said Sreenivasan. 

Sridevi's father is still called the 'Meenampatti Mudhalali', meaning ‘Meenampatti’ landlord in English. Her brother-in-law, Sanjay Ramasamy, was the former MLA of Virudhunagar constituency. Sridevi's family still possesses properties in the village and also maintains a primary school.

Sridevi's aunt, Saraswathy Ammal, wife of Ramasamy Naidu, is still in the village and takes care of the family properties.