Bollywood Diva: Divya Bharti’s biography

Attractive, spirited with that extra bit of something in her, Divya Bharti became a star overnight before her story ended abruptly. Divya Bharti was a popular Indian film actress and Bollywood celebrity in the early 1990s.

Her career was tragically cut short when she died at the age of 19 in 1993.

Divya Bharti was born on 25^th February, 1974 in Mumbai. Her parents are Omprakash Bharti and Meeta Bharti. Her father was working in insurance. Kunal was her younger brother.

Divya Bharati attended high school at Maneckji Cooper High School, but dropped out when she began being offered film roles while she was in the 9th grade.

Divya Bharti was first discovered by director Kirti Kumar, who is brother of actor Govinda. She was considered for a role in the film “Radha Ka Sangam “opposite Govinda.

She received her first film role offer in 1988 but was dropped from the film production for unclear reasons. Several other directors showed interest but Divya was not signed to any films. Since she was out of school and out of work, it was a challenging time for her.

Finally the famed Telugu film director, Mr. D. Rama Naidu, approached Divya for his movie “Bobbili Raja” opposite to Venkatesh which was released in 1990 and it was dubbed into Hindi as “Rampur ka Raja”. It became a huge hit and Divya became a huge star. Then she starred in Dharma Kshetram, Tholi Madhu and Rowdy Alludu which were also Telugu films and featured superstars Chiranjeevi and Prashanth respectively and was being compared with Sridevi, the biggest star at the time. After a series of releases and hits in Telugu; she was featured in Hindi films, which were major hits at the box office.

Divya made her entry into Bollywood with Rajiv Rai’s Vishwatma opposite Sunny Deol which was released in the summer of 1991. The movie did not do well at the box office but Divya was showcased for her skills as an actress. She was most notable for the song used in the film Saat Samundar which was a hit. Shortly after the release of “Vishwatma” she found herself signed to star in 14 movies.

The first of this string of movies, “Dil Ka Kya Kasoor”, was not very successful but the next 4 movies Shola Aur Shabnam, Deewana, Balwaan, and Jaan Se Pyaara – were big hits and moved Divya from promising newcomer status to A-list status. Divya was the youngest most successful start in Bollywood earning her the Outstanding Face of the Year at the end of 1992.

During this time as a Bollywood actress, Divya was also constantly featured in the tabloids in stories related to her behaviors on-set. But there was more drama and intrigue to come. Divya had secretly married Bollywood film producer Sajid Nadiadwala on May 20th,1992. The marriage was kept hidden due to family issues – one because of her being a Hindu and Sajid being a Muslim and the other to safeguard her promising movie career. After the marriage, she converted to Islam and changed her name to Sana Nadiadwala.

In 1993, Divya Bharti had 2 hit movies Kshatriya and Andha Insaaf and her career seemed unstoppable as a hot celebrity.

Unfortunately on April 5, 1993, her life tragically came to an end when she fell from the 5th floor of Tulsi apartment in Versova, Mumbai, which was owned by producer Sajid Nadiadwala. The media, spanked the accident as a murder crime or a suicide attempt a many stories were sharpened in the media, against and in favor of the producer Sajid nadiadwala. To this day her death remains a mystery. Some sources believe she was pushed, others say she accidentally fell off and some say she was drunk and this caused her to fall. Finally, the case was closed by the police cops, without proper conclusion.

At the time of her death she was meant to do films including. Mohra, Laadla and Vijaypath. Months after her death, two of her completed films Rang and Shatranj were released and dedicated to her memory.