Daily Times

DUBAI: Veteran actor Sridevi, 54, suffered a cardiac arrest while she was getting ready at a hotel room in Dubai, according to Pinkvilla, and was rushed to the hospital. However, a Gulf-based newspaper contradicted the report that she was with Boney Kapoor in her hotel room the night she passed away.

The actress was to join her producer-husband for a dinner date after she was done getting dressed; she suffered a cardiac arrest before leaving which led to her sudden demise.

A hotel staffer raised alarm after she failed to open the door after multiple doorbells. “At around 10.30 pm, she called the room service to request for water. When the server reached her room within 15 minutes, the actor did not attend to multiple doorbells. After a few minutes, fearing something was amiss, the staffer raised an alarm. When we broke into the room, we found her on the bathroom floor. This was around 11 PM. She had a pulse when we found her,” said a source from the hotel.

The source confirmed that the actress was alone in her hotel room, adding that she was rushed to Rashid Hospital, where the leading lady was declared dead on arrival.

Sridevi was staying back in Dubai to attend an auction of her paintings after husband and daughter Khushi Kapoor flew back to India from Dubai, following their attendance in Ras Al Khaimah a week earlier to celebrate the wedding of her actor-nephew Mohit Marwah.

Her autopsy was carried out at the hospital under a rigorous schedule. A hospital official added, “Since she is a high profile personality, we can not rush the postmortem procedures.”

Indian tycoon Anil Ambani sent his private chopper to carry Sridevi’s body back to the country.

According to Khaleej Times, the star was with husband Boney Kapoor who flew back from Mumbai after attending Manmohan Shetty’s birthday dinner and joined her at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel, on Saturday, to “surprise” her.

He woke her up and the couple chatted for about 15 minutes before he invited her to go to dinner with him. The ‘Chandni of hearts’ escorted herself to the bathroom to get ready for her plans with her husband ahead. However, she did not come out despite a lapse of 15 minutes.

Upon hearing no response from her end, a baffled Boney Kapoor forced open the door to find his wife lying motionless in the bathtub full of water. “He tried to revive her and when he could not, he called a friend of his. After that, he informed the police at 9 pm,” a source said.