Legendary Bollywood star Sridevi Kapoor’s cause of death has been confirmed as “accidental drowning”, following an official investigation.
The Indian actress - known by the monolith Sridevi - died on Saturday night (24 February) at the age of 54, in Dubai, where she and her family had been invited to a family wedding.
Initial reports suggested she’d died following a cardiac arrest, though Dubai Police released forensic results to her family and the Indian consulate on Monday (26 February), naming her cause of death as “accidental drowning”.
A Dubai Police official told Gulf News: “The investigation is still going on to determine the circumstances surrounding the accident as the forensic report only says that she drowned.”
The forensic report also revelaed that Sridevi had “traces of alcohol” in her blood at the time of her death, with a final postmortem report yet to be completed, leading her funeral - which is to be held in India - to be delayed.
Sridevi had an illustrious career in Bollywood, starring in more than 300 films in her lifetime, and being heralded as one of the most popular and celebrated actresses of her generation.
Her first film role was playing the young Lord Muruga in ‘Thunaivan’ at the age of just four, and she went on to scoop five Filmfare Awards (often dubbed the equivalent of the Oscars for films in the Hindi language) in her lifetime, her first of which was for playing identical twins in 1989’s ‘ChaalBaaz’.
She is survived by her husband, Boney Kapoor, and their two children, who were also in Dubai at the time of her death.
