Adil Hussain on Creative Collaboration and the Legacy of Sridevi

Adil Hussain. He’s talking about old times now, walking down memory lane for that film ‘52 Blue’ which is coming up at the London Indian Film Festival. It’s July 9th through the 19th of 2026. A festival date, right?

He spoke to IANS about working with a creative giant back in the early 2010s. Sridevi . That name alone carries weight. She had nearly three hundred films under her belt then. That’s just a number, isn't it? But for him, that was the context for something different.

He talked about ‘English Vinglish’. That film. It wasn’t just another project. For Adil, working with Sridevi felt like stepping into something entirely different than what most people experience in this industry.

He brought up how he got involved. It was his third Hindi film, actually. So already there was a level of experience. But the real story isn't about the count. It’s about the dynamic when you are working alongside someone so established.

Adil said something really telling about their interactions. He remembered her humility. That seemed to be the core of it. She wouldn't just dictate. She would ask. To work together, to do a scene. And she suggested something a direction. Then he’d suggest something back. A little negotiation happening there.

He recalled that specific moment where everything felt fluid. It wasn't rigid. She’d propose an idea, and he’d offer one. And the response was always open. ‘Oh, can we do it this way?’ She would look at it, consider it, and then just aGree. ‘Yeah, let’s do it this way.’ Always ready to improvise. That kind of ease felt almost revolutionary in that environment.

He made a point about the system itself. He mentioned there is this huge feudal structure running everything. A hierarchy. Stars are stars. Newcomers are newcomers. It feels like dialogue just stops there. You don’t really move.

But when you’re working with someone massive, like Sridevi accomplished as she was it changes the atmosphere entirely. There’s this consultation. Not a command. More like two people looking at the same space, figuring out how to make something work for the greater good of the film. It became very open communication between them.

He felt that kind of freedom was rare then. He emphasized that she belonged to a specific group of actors. The ones who didn’t just follow the established rules blindly. They worked against the norms, you know? They sidestepped the feudal system altogether in their approach.

It wasn't about following lines handed down from above. It was about creating something new, together. That kind of collaborative space felt incredibly important to him then. A space where experience met fresh perspective without forcing one over the other.

The festival itself is coming up soon. July 9th to the 19th, 2026. A window of time for people to look back, maybe? To see what that kind of interaction looks like now, or what it meant then. It’s a specific moment set against this backdrop of industry history.

That sense of breaking free from the rigid structure that’s what really stuck with him in those years. The way they interacted felt less about status and more about pure creative momentum. That improvisation wasn't just acting; it was an entire philosophy applied to filmmaking. It made the work itself feel expansive, not constrained by expectations placed on newcomers or even established figures within that old framework.

There’s a tension there. You have these giants in the industry, huge legacies, but sometimes those legacies create walls. And then you have these interactions the ones where two people just connect over an idea, letting the process guide them instead of rigid contracts guiding every single choice. That kind of openness seems almost lost now, doesn't it?

Adil’s observation points toward a different way of operating. A more organic flow. Where the hierarchy isn't the primary driver. It's just... there. And then you have these collaborations that seem to defy that structure entirely. They operate on a level where consultation is natural, not forced. Just seeing what works for the story unfolding in front of them.

It’s about finding the space between the expectation and the execution. That subtle shift from being told what to do, to figuring out how to do it side by side. It's that human element he seems to be highlighting when he talks about those early days with Sridevi .

A moment where talent and a willingness to bend not break the rules seemed to align perfectly.

The memory isn’t just about the film. It’s about that specific atmosphere they created on set. That shared space of creative freedom. It feels like an echo now, doesn't it? An echo of how things *could* have been, or perhaps, how they managed to be, despite all the structures trying to impose themselves.

When you look at the film festival dates July 2026 it puts this memory into a specific time frame. It’s looking back from a future point, maybe. A chance to reflect on those moments of genuine creative ease before things settled into the more predictable patterns we see today. That kind of reflective quality is powerful. It reminds us that behind the big stars and the massive output, there were these smaller, almost accidental shifts in how things got done. These small acts of mutual respect and shared improvisation.

It’s a reminder that even within a highly structured world like Bollywood, there are pockets where pure, unadulterated creative energy can flow freely. Where the weight of history doesn't completely crush the possibility of spontaneous, flexible collaboration. That kind of memory, when shared, holds a certain kind of quiet significance. It’s not loud or flashy. It’s just... real. A little messy sometimes, but undeniably human in its simplicity and its focus on how things actually happened between people.