Divya Bharati Remembered

I may have said it before, but I'm still very much a "newbie" to Bollywood, though my Indian friends are impressed with my knowledge. And every now and then, I'm reminded just how little I know.

Like tonight, for instance. I ran across a name I'd not heard before and, because of my curiosity for all things Bollywood, I had to know more.

I was going to bid on a magazine with Juhi Chawla on the cover on eBay, but was stunned by the asking price (the equivelant of $60 U.S.). Ridiculous, I said! I contacted the seller to ask why this magazine was so outrageously expensive. The reply was that it was one of the rare magazines that had an article with Divya Bharati.

WHO??



So I had to investigate. Wow, was I in for a shock. This young woman, who died at the age of 19, had, in only 3 years in films, made a deep mark on Bollywood to the point where, after her tragic death, producers were scrambling to find another like her. Her nickname was Baby Doll. While she was known for her sweet face and resembling greatly the legendary actress Sridevi, she was also known for being a little erratic, slightly out of control, and highly competitive. She was compared to Juhi Chawla, Kajol, and even Madhuri. Many people still believe that, had she lived, she would have been considered one of the greatest of all Hindi film actresses.

And in my investigation, I realized that I have one of her films in my library: "Deewana", which, despite being a Shah Rukh Khan fanatic, I've not gotten a chance to watch yet (I have a literal stack of films I've yet to see).

I'm struck by the tragedy of her death and what little I've read so far with regards to her and her life. She married secretly, without her family's blessing, to producer Sajid Nadiadwala ("Heyy Babyy"), changed her name to Sana and her religion to Muslim. The tragedy of her death was that she fell, 5 stories, from her husband's apartment, after drinking. Her death was deemed an accident, but due to the problems in her personal life, some questioned if her death wasn't murder.

Recently, with the movie "Om Shanti Om," some have question if Farah and SRK weren't, in some way, making a statement about Divya and her relationship with Sajid. There is a lot to compare to between Divya and the character Shantipriya. It's a question I'd love to pose to Farah or SRK.

Actually, in fact, I think I may have to pose this question to co-writer of OSO, Mushtaq Sheikh. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he hasn't been asked this question many times before.