Her movies opened up a parallel world for me: Harish Iyer

"I have lost my mom," said equal rights activist Harish Iyer on Sridevi's passing. On several occasions the activist has spoken about how Sridevi's movies helped him come out of the trauma of child sexual abuse when he was young.

Harish remembers the first film of Sridevi's that he saw, Pathinaru Vayathinile, a Tamil classic, as a young child. "At a time when I was facing sexual abuse, Sridevi's movies opened up the possibility of living in a parallel world for me where I could forget all my troubles and just live a normal life for those few minutes," said Iyer. "She was my mother. The relationship that I have and the connect with her is extremely personal and dear to me."

Iyer opened up about his story of abuse in Satyameva Jayate, a show anchored by Aamir Khan, where he also met his idol Sridevi. "She held me and told me in Tamil that she admires me," he added.

He has not missed a single Sridevi film so far barring her most recent release. "Somehow I could not watch Mom but before that I have watched each one of her films. Losing her is a loss that cannot be repaired," he said.