Sridevi’s devastated husband reveals her final moments as he opens up about the night she died

Boney Kapoor has given a heartbreaking account of the events of the night his wife Sridevi died. Just a week ago, the 62-year-old made the heartbreaking discovery of his wife dead in the bathtub of their Dubai hotel having surprised her by turning up at the door of the hotel room just two hours before. The pair had been in Dubai with their youngest daughter Khushi to attend a wedding, but while Boney had flown back to India for business, Sridevi had stayed on to do some shopping for their oldest daughter Jhanvi, who turns 21 on 7 March. But Boney decided to return to surprise his wife so that they could fly home together. He has now spoken out to his friend to his friend of 30 years, film critic and trade analyst Komal Nahta, to explain what happened that night. Boney had arrived at the room at 6.20pm to surprise his wife, after telling her he was in an important meeting while really he was on a plane to Dubai. On their reunion, he said they ‘kissed and cuddled like a couple of teenagers’ for an hour. Although, he said, Sridevi admitted she had a hunch he’d come and visit her as they rarely traveled apart
Boney then suggested they go for a ‘romantic dinner’, and with Sridevi still in ‘relaxation mode’ she decided to have a bath. ‘I went to the living room while Sridevi went to the master bathroom to bathe and get ready,’ Boney was quoted by Nahta as having said. Sridevi’s husband then spent 15-20 minutes in the living room flicking through channels. At 8pm he decided they needed to get moving, worried about the restaurants becoming too full for them to find a table. Nahta wrote in the blog: ‘Boney’s impatience made him shout out to Sridevi from the living room itself. After calling out to her twice, Boney lowered the volume of the TV set. Still no reply. He then walked to the bedroom and knocked at the bathroom door and even called out to her
The unsuspecting husband, hearing the tap inside on, then called out ‘Jaan, Jaan’ [meaning life, as Kapoor used to address his wife] still louder but got no reply, which was unusual.’ He added: ‘He panicked and opened the door which had not been bolted from inside, nervous but yet not at all prepared for what he was going to see. The tub was full of water and Sridevi was immersed completely, from head to toe, inside the tub. Devastated, he reached out to her but watching her motionless, he feared the worst. ‘Sridevi had drowned! Boney’s world had come crashing down.’ It is noted in the blog that Sridevi may have fallen asleep as she didn’t appear to have struggled as no water had splashed out of the bath.