DUBAI: The body of Indian actor Sridevi was flown back to Mumbai on Tuesday after Dubai investigators closed the case into her death last weekend, calling it an accidental drowning.

The 54-year-old Sridevi, who was known by only one name, drowned in a hotel bathtub after losing consciousness, officials said. Police officials said the autopsy also revealed alcohol in her system.

“The case has now been closed,” the state-run Dubai Media office tweeted.

Her death has been front-page news in India, where Bollywood stars command an almost mythical status. Fans have been gathering in front of the Mumbai home of her brother-in-law, prominent actor Anil Kapoor.

The coverage has been both lurid and restrained, with one TV station showing a reporter talking about her death from inside a bathtub, and many newspapers not mentioning the alcohol reports.

Sridevi was the most famous Bollywood actress of the 1980s and ‘90s, and the first woman to get top billing in an industry then completely dominated by men.

She was embalmed on Tuesday in a simple government-run mortuary in a dusty neighborhood of squat, square buildings that house some of Dubai’s immense population of foreign workers, many of whom come from South Asia.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2018