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Divya Bharti gave Bollywood just three years of her acting career before bidding adieu. And yet she managed to carve a filmography, which includes Tamil and Telugu movies as well, that remains etched in our memories even after 30 years. Divya, who made her silver screen debut in 1990 with the Tamil film Nila Pennae, starred in over 20 films, with half a dozen projects still under production at the time of her untimely demise. In fact, 1992 can easily be christened as her year. Her movies Dil Ka Kya Kasoor, Shola Aur Shabnam, Deewana and Dil Aashna Hai hit screens that year, and producers were queuing up to sign her.
In an interview, Divya had said she was excited when some people pointed out about her resemblance to Sridevi. “I was thrilled. I said wow what a compliment to look so beautiful and good,” Divya said. She added that she refuses to accept the comparison as Sridevi is “so beautiful. She’s so good. She’s tall, good looking, fairer than me everything! She’s got a clearer complexion. I’ve got a pimpled face.”
When Divya Bharti passed away at the age of 19 in 1993, she was married to producer Sajid Nadiadwala, and had eight movies in different stages of production. From Laadla to Mohra, Divya was already working on many projects that later had to be reshot with replacements.
Fate had its way as Sridevi replaced Divya in Laadla. Sridevi stepped into Divya’s shoes so seamlessly that we are yet to decide who said the film’s most popular dialogues better — “Understand? You better understand!”
In one particular shooting video, Sridevi struggles with a dialogue exactly at the same point where Divya also fumbled. The eerie connection was also pin-pointed by Raveena Tandon, who was part of Laadla’s cast.
Raveena told Mumbai Mirror, “The first shot was an emotional one for us because Sridevi had stepped into Divya Bharti’s shoes after her untimely demise. Divya, Shakti Kapoor and I had shot a scene in Aurangabad where she fires us and throws us out of the office. While shooting the scene, Divya was constantly getting stuck on a particular line of dialogue and had to give several retakes before it was okay. Around six months later, we were shooting the same scene with Sridevi in the same office and it was so eerie because she was stuck on the same line. All of us on the set had gooseflesh.”
Raveena Tandon added that they resumed the shooting after following Shakti Kapoor’s suggestion of chanting the Gayatri mantra and breaking a coconut on the set. Raveena later replaced Divya in Mohra. Divya had already shot for a few scenes when Raveena was roped in to star opposite Akshay Kumar.
Divya Bharti worked with the biggest banners and was paired opposite the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Rishi Kapoor, Govinda, Suniel Shetty and Jackie Shroff in her short career. While it was reported that she was a strong choice for playing Simran in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge, the part eventually went to Kajol, who replaced Divya in Hulchul too.
Actor Sanjay Kapoor had in 2020 written an emotional Instagram post on 25 years of his film Kartavya. Though the movie initially starred Divya, it was later completed by Juhi Chawla. Sanjay wrote, “Got the opportunity to work with the wonderful and very talented Juhi Chawala. The very sad and unfortunate part was that we lost the very beautiful Divya Bharti during the shooting of this film. In fact, I had shot this song first with her. This film will always be Special and very close to my heart.” He was referring to the track “Hame Kya Khabar Thee.”
Other actors who replaced Divya included Karisma Kapoor in Dhanwaan, Pooja Bhatt in Angrakshak, Tabu in Vijaypath and Mamta Kulkarni in Andolan.
Kshatriya, starring Sunny Deol, Sanjay Dutt, Vinod Khanna, Dharmendra, Meenakshi Seshadri and Raveena Tandon, was Divya Bharti’s last film. Such was Divya’s popularity that three of her projects released posthumously — Rang, Shatranj and Tholi Muddhu.
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