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Divya Bharti (Hindi: दिव्या भारती), (born Divya Om Prakash Bharti, February 25, 1974 - April 5, 1993) was a popular Indian film actress in the early 1990s. In her short career which lasted three and half years she acted in 19 films. Her career was short-lived after her mysterious death in 1993 at the age of 19.

Divya Bharti was born to parents Meeta and Om Prakash. She left studies to start acting at the age of 16. She secretly married Bollywood film producer Sajid Nadiadwala in May of 1992, but kept the marriage a secret due to family, problems and also to safeguard her movie career.

Divya was first discovered by Kirti Kumar, brother of actor Govinda in 1988 and was considered for a role in the film Radha Ka Sangam opposite Govinda but was eventually turned down.

Divya Bharti made her acting debut at the age of 16 in a 1990 Telugu film 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 five more Telugu films; Nila Penne, 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 an average hit at the box office^[1] but got her noticed for the popular song Saat Samundar which was picturized on her in the film. Many of her other 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 top three of the leading upcoming actresses in Bollywood that year.^[2]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 before her untimely death.

On April 5, 1993 at the age of only 19, Divya fell to her death off a 5-story apartment building in Mumbai tragically ending a potentially successful career. The circumstances behind her death were considered suspicious by the media; however, despite an investigation, police found no evidence that her death was murder. To this day her death remains a mystery. Some sources believe she accidentally fell off, was murdered or committed suicide. One source believes her husband Sajid Nadiadwala had links with the Mumbai mafia and was involved in her death but this has never been proven to be true.^[3]

Divya's funeral took place on April 7.^[4]About 500 people attended the funeral of the then youngest heroine of the silver screen, including Anil Kapoor, Kamal Sadanah, Raj Babbar, Yash Chopra, Jimmy Nirula, Sudhakar Bokade, Mukesh Duggal, 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.^[5]

Divya's two final completed films Rang and Shatranj were released months after her death. These, in addition to several films produced by her husband Sajid Nadiadwala, were dedicated to her memory. She was also meant to do movies including Mohra, Laadla , Andolan , Aagrakshak ,Kartavya (1995), and Vijaypath before her death.

• Divya Bharti at the Internet Movie Database
• A tribute to Divya Bharti
• Divya Bharti interview with Stardust from 1992. pdf file
• Divya Bharti on skyblog