Divya Bharti, Bollywood’s Lost Superstar
The once-in-a-generation talent delivered 19 movies in two years. Her untimely death left a void — and questions that remain unsolved.
When she died, Raveena Tandon got Mohra, Shilpa Shetty got Aag, Sridevi got Laadla, Tabu got Vijaypath, Kajol got Hulchul, and countless actresses got their big breaks. “She was only 18 but she was challenging all the tenured actresses. She was getting all the movies. They were all becoming hits,” one commentator pointed out.
To this day, people whisper that the Bollywood hit Om Shanti Om (2007) — about a superstar actress who secretly marries a producer and then suddenly dies — is based on her. Divya Bharti, too, was at the top of her game. She, too, had secretly married a producer. She, too, had an untimely demise.
But whether you believe her death is shrouded in conspiracy or was merely an accident, one thing remains true: “If she had been alive today, she would’ve been at the top,” friend Sonam Khan shared. The real intrigue of Bharti’s life perhaps isn’t how she died — it was everything leading up to that moment.