Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 64.154.26.251 (talk) at 11:03, 1 December 2008 (Divya Bharati was a big success in the South by the time she joined Bollywood.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Divya Bharti (Template:Lang-hi), (born Divya Om Prakash Bharti, February 25, 1974 - April 5, 1993) was a popular Indian film actress who starred in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films in the early 1990s. Divya Bharti made her acting debut at the age of 16 in a 1990 Tamil film titled Nilla Penne (1990) which was a flop. She got her first break in the Telugu film Bobbili Raja opposite Venkatesh which was a big hit. She also went onto act in several other Telugu films over the next two years. She then joined the Hindi language film industry Bollywood making her debut in Vishwatma in 1992. She appeared in more than 14 Hindi films that year which was considered a record at the time for a newcomer. Her career was tragically cut short by her mysterious death in April 1993 at the age of 19. The actress was said to be the younger version of Bollywood legend Sridevi due to the facial resemblance.

Early life

Divya Bharti was born to Meeta and Om Prakash Bharti. She had one younger brother named Kunal. She quit her education to start acting at the age of 16.

Film career

Divya was first discovered by actor and director Kirti Kumar, brother of actor Govinda in 1988 and was considered for a role in their movie Radha Ka Sangam. This role ultimately went to Juhi Chawla.

Divya Bharti made her acting debut at the age of 16 in a 1990 Tamil film titled Nila Pennae and her first hit was the Telugu film titled Bobbili Raja (1990) in which she starred opposite Venkatesh. The film was also dubbed in Hindi as Rampur Ka Raja. She went on to star in four more Telugu films; Dharma Kshetram, Tholi Mudhu, Rowdy Alludu and Assembly Rowdy in which she co-starred with Telegu superstars Balakrishna, Prashanth, Chiranjeevi and Mohan Babu respectively.

She then switched over to the Bollywood industry and made her Hindi film debut in the 1992 film Vishwatma. The film was only an average hit at the box office but got her noticed for the popular song Saat Samundar which was picturized on her in the film. Many of her other Hindi films released that same year which was a record for any newcomer actress in Bollywood at the time. Some of her most notable films in 1992 included Deewana, Dil Aashna Hai and Shola Aur Shabnam putting her at the third position of the leading actresses in Bollywood that year after Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit.and gaining her the Filmfare Lux New Face Award. She worked with most of the top actors in Bollywood at the time such as Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff, Rishi Kapoor, Govinda, Sanjay Dutt as well as Shahrukh Khan and Sunil Shetty who were newcomers at the time. She was also due to co-star with Akshay Kumar in Mohra , Ajay Devgan in Vijaypath, Sanjay Kapoor in Kartavya, Anil Kapoor in Laadla and Sunny Deol in Angrakshak before her death.

Personal life

In May 1992 she secretly married Bollywood film producer Sajid Nadiadwala but kept the marriage a secret due to family problems and also to prevent any controversies in her movie career.

Death

On April 5, 1993 at the age of only 19, Divya fell to her death off a 5-storey apartment building, Tulsi 2 in Mumbai. The police closed the investigation into her death in 1998, but the circumstances of her death remain murky.

Divya's funeral took place on April 7. About 500 people attended the funeral of the then-youngest heroine of the silver screen, including Anil Kapoor, Govinda, Kamal Sadanah, Raj Babbar, Yash Chopra, Jimmy Nirula, Sudhakar Bokade, Mukesh Duggal,Mahesh Anand, Aruna Irani, Raza Murad, Vikas Anand, Venkatesh, Ram Mohan, Javed Khan, Raj Kanwar, Nitin Manmohan and Pehlaj Nehlani, maker of her first hit, Shola aur Shabnam. A large number of film personalities, including Hema Malini, Urmila Matondkar, Shilpa Shirodkar, Sonu Walia, Somy Ali, Karisma Kapoor, Sangeeta Bijlani, Tabu, Manisha Koirala and Asha Parekh, offered condolences to the bereaved family members at their residence.

She was scheduled to star movies including Mohra, Laadla , Andolan , Angrakshak ,Kartavya (1995), and Vijaypath before her death; her roles were recast. Divya's two final completed films, Rang and Shatranj, were released months after her death. These films--in addition to several films produced by her husband Sajid Nadiadwala--were dedicated to her memory.

Quotes about Divya from her colleagues

Interview: Divya Deadly! The New Sensation, Filmfare October 1992

"When I decided to sign her everyone thought I was mad. She worked even with 102 degrees temperature. At times she's like a ziddi brat and you have to deal with her patient, indulgent parent. I had to really pamper her" - Raj Kanwar.

"She's the most promising newcomer. She had all that our audiences go for- wide -eyed innocence, a perfect figure and all the jatkas and matkas. Even of her next four or five films flop her fans will remain with her and that makes her a favorite with the distributors" - Pehlaj Nihlani.

"She got thrown out of so many films, so many people treated her badly, it would have embittered anyone. Now she's a star she wants to get even with these people" - Lawrence D'Souza.

"It's not just her talent or the will to slog that they are raving about but also her proficiency, her involvement in her work" - Talat Jani.

"We have been waiting for her a year. By now even Amitabh Bachchan would have given us the dates" - Sajid Nadiadwala

Article: Racing to the Top, Numero Uno' 1993 -Filmare, January 1993

"Among the Actresses- Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and Divya will be the stars of 1993" - Sudharkar Bokade.

"Divya has the potential but her unprofessional attitude comes in her way. If she pays attention to her work she can go far" - Inder Kumar

"Divya should be a good bet if she has the right releases. When I saw her in Bobblili Raja i was impressed with her." - Ashok Thakeria

"Divya is also very cute, she been lucky with Shola aur Shabnam and Deewana" - R.K Nayyar

"Divya is the find of 92 and hopefully she wont fall short of expectations" - Mohan Kumar

"I feel Divya had the making of a No. 1 but I feel her career is no longer her priority" - Suraj Sanim

"Among the Girls Divya has good films and a lot of luck as her films have run" - Anil Sharma

"Divya Bharati is the one with potential among the newer lot." - Prakash Mehra

"Sridevi and Madhuri are also in similar positions, Those likely to compete with them are Divya Bharati and Juhi" - Yash Chopra

Divya Bharati's Ghost is Alive , The spirit that's Haunting Juhi and Kajol! - Showtime, February 1994

"Kajol and Divya have a lot in common their youth, vivacity, spontaneity" -Producer, Shabnam Kapoor

"If Divya have been alive, the best roles would have gone to her. Divya had everything- she was bubbly, a wonderful actress, a fabulous dancer and a good looker too. She had the combination of a beautiful face and sexy figure which no one else has. The way she was going, everybody would have been talking of only Divya and nobody else, I cant say who would've got or not got which roles, but if divya was there the roles would've been more divided, Divya has no replacement". -Director, David Dhawan

"Juhi, kajol and karisma are in different spot, Divya had a totally different kind of appeal from those three. what she had was natural and god given, if cannot be created by oneone, however much they may try. She had a raw, tamed, wild look about her which magnetised the audience" - Actor, Govinda

"There was nobody like Divya and there will be nobody alike her" - indo-British actor" - Saeed Jaffrey

"When Divya Was Around, did anyone talk about Juhi, After Sridevi and Madhuri , Divya was the next and only choice of the producers - Meeta Bharati

"Who Says i copy Divya?, Yah i know I've replaced her opposite Ajay Devgan in Hulchul and the producer tells me that my bubbly nature reminds her of Divya" - Kajol

" It is strange that a girl who spend only three years in industry has become irreplaceable. Every filmmaker is trying to find another Divya Bharti, But no one fits. Everyone is hunting hard but there is not even a pale xerox of the vibrant original anywhere on the horizon. Until the ideal replacement arrives, divya's ghost is not alive and kicking." - Sujeta Garimella

Filmography

Incomplete films\ Made with other Actresses

Note

• All the list of Incomplete films is copyright from Filmfare, and Cineblitz Magzines of May, 1993

|}

References

1. BoxOfficeIndia.com - The Premium Boxoffice Portal
2. BoxOffice India.com

External links

• Divya Bharti at IMDb
• Divya Bharti on skyblog

• 1974 births
• 1993 deaths
• Indian film actors
• Telugu actors
• Accidental deaths from falls
• Cause of death disputed
• Accidental human deaths in India