Divya Bharti

Divya Bharti (25 February 1974 – 5 April 1993) was an Indian actress who worked predominantly in Telugu and Hindi films.

One of India's highest-paid actresses of her time, she was noted for her acting versatility and beauty, and is the recipient of a Filmfare Award and a Nandi Award.

Bharti started her film career as a teenager, while she was doing pin-up modeling assignments.

Bharti was born in Bombay on 25 February 1974 to Om Prakash Bharti and Meeta Bharti.

She had a younger brother named Kunal and a half-sister Poonam, who was the child of Om Prakash Bharti's first marriage.

Actress Kainaat Arora is her cousin.

She spoke Hindi, English and Marathi fluently.

In her early years, she was known for her bubbly personality and doll-like looks.

She studied at Maneckji Cooper High School in Juhu, Mumbai.

Bharti was a restless student at school and completed the 9th standard before pursuing an acting career.

In 1988, Bharti, then a ninth-grader, was signed by filmmaker Nandu Tolani for one of his films.

She was originally scheduled to make her screen debut in Gunahon Ka Devta in 1988, but her role was cancelled and she was replaced by Sangeeta Bijlani.

Kirti Kumar (Govinda's brother) noticed Bharti at a video library and was eager to sign her for his project Radha Ka Sangam opposite Govinda.

Kumar met with director Dilip Shankar and managed to release Bharti from her contract.

After taking dancing and acting lessons for months to prepare for her role, Bharti was dropped and replaced by Juhi Chawla.

It was speculated that Kumar's possessiveness over Bharti and her childish nature was the cause of her replacement.

Bharti's career was stalled until D. Ramanaidu, a Telugu film producer, offered her a leading role in the film Bobbili Raja opposite his son Daggubati Venkatesh.

She began shooting in Andhra Pradesh for her screen debut.

She made her debut with a lead role opposite Venkatesh in the Telugu-language romantic action Bobbili Raja (1990), and subsequently appeared in a financially unsuccessful Tamil-language film Nila Pennae (1990).

The film was released in the summer of 1990 and became a hit.

Bobbili Raja remains one of the most popular and iconic Telugu movies.

Later in the year, Bharti acted in a Tamil film, Nila Pennae, opposite Anand.

The film was critically and financially unsuccessful.

In box office ratings, Bharti ranked next to Vijayashanti who has been widely called The Lady Superstar and Lady Amitabh of South Indian cinema.

In films like Naa Ille Naa Swargam (1991) and Assembly Rowdy (1991) she had minor roles.

Bharti had her first commercial success with the Telugu romantic comedy Rowdy Alludu (1991).

In 1991, Bharti had back-to-back hits with action comedy film Rowdy Alludu and drama Assembly Rowdy opposite actors Chiranjeevi and Mohan Babu, respectively.

Later that year, Bharti began filming A. Kodandarami Reddy's action romance Dharma Kshetram under Sri Rajeev Productions.

Bharti got to work with Telugu film actor Nandamuri Balakrishna.

While Bharti celebrated her success in Andhra Pradesh, Bollywood's top directors were eager to sign her for films.

In 1992, she transitioned from Telugu films to Hindi cinema and made her debut in the Hindi action thriller Vishwatma (1992).

Her career took a significant turn with the success of the 1992 action-comedy Shola Aur Shabnam, which was a box office hit.

She continued to achieve success with leading roles, including the romance film Deewana (1992), for which she received the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.

Bharti's first Hindi film was Rajiv Rai's 1992 film Vishwatma.

In an interview with Filmfare, she said that she liked her role as Kusum, Sunny Deol's love interest, in the film, describing it as a "very good role".

The film was an average box office performer but gained Bharti wider recognition from the public as well as film critics.

Bharti was most notable for the song used in the film Saat Samundar.

Bharti died on 5 April 1993 at the age of 19, after falling from the balcony of her apartment on the fifth floor in Mumbai.

The circumstances surrounding her death have given rise to various conspiracy theories.

However, it was officially declared an accidental death in 1998.