India crowds say goodbye to Bollywood star

Bollywood superstar Sridevi was cremated in the Indian city of Mumbai on Thursday as thousands of fans gathered outside to pay their last respects.

Earlier, crowds clutching roses queued outside the Celebration Sports Club in the city to bid farewell to the star.

A specially decorated truck carrying her body took hours to travel the 7km (4.3 miles) to the cemetery.

The actress was cremated with full state honours.

Her body was flown back to India on Tuesday night.

Sridevi, 54, died "due to accidental drowning following loss of consciousness", police said. She was found in her hotel bathtub.

Known simply as Sridevi, the actress was considered one of the very few Indian female superstars capable of huge box-office success without the support of a male hero. She appeared in nearly 300 films over five decades.

Film stars from Bollywood as well as the south Indian film industry were among the mourners at the sports club in the Andheri West area of Mumbai, home to Bollywood.

"Since I heard the news about her death, I have been standing outside her home for two to three hours every day, waiting for one glance," Bhagirathi, an aspiring actress, told BBC Marathi's Abhijeet Kamble. She said she was inspired by Sridevi to try her luck in Bollywood.

Rajan Naidu, who has been a fan of Sridevi since he was a child, said he booked an entire cinema hall in Mumbai when her last movie, English Vinglish, was released in 2012. He even named his daughter after Sridevi.

Another fan, Kalpanaben Kodekar, said she travelled all the way from the neighbouring state of Gujarat to see Sridevi "one last time".

"I'm really grateful that they allowed us inside and not just the celebrities. We'll always feel the void Sridevi's departure has created," she added.

Large numbers of police have been deployed outside the star's house, on the procession route and outside the Vile Parle Seva Samaj crematorium where the body will be taken.

It had earlier been reported that Sridevi died of cardiac arrest while at a family wedding in Dubai.

The full post-mortem report has not yet been released to the public and will be expected to explain how the original report of cardiac arrest and the listing of "accidental drowning" are linked.

The actress had been in the United Arab Emirates to attend the wedding of her nephew, Mohit Marwah.

Why was she such a huge box-office draw?

Sridevi's life on screen began when she was just four. She started her career in the south Indian film industry, acting in movies in all four major languages of the region.

She was cast in her first adult role at the age of 13 - that of a woman avenging her lover's death.

By 1978, she graduated to an extraordinary career in Bollywood, where although she knew neither the language nor the culture of the Hindi film industry, she became one of its biggest stars.

She starred in classics such as Mr India, Chandni, ChaalBaaz and Sadma, becoming one of the only actresses to build a successful career in both south Indian and Bollywood films.

Sridevi was rumoured to be the highest paid in her field and her star power and charisma persisted for years to come.

She decided to take a break from the film industry after her marriage to producer Boney Kapoor and the release of Judaai in 1997. She made a comeback in 2012, starring in English Vinglish.

In 2013, the Indian government awarded her the Padma Shri - the country's fourth-highest civilian honour.