The most comprehensive fan blog dedicated to India's most beautiful and greatest actress of all-time (in our humble opine!), Sridevi. Sridevi aka Sreedevi, ruled Indian cinema (with awesome performances in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi films) in a career spanning 50 incredible years featuring 266 films. Born in Sivakasi on August 13 1963, her untimely and tragic death on February 24, 2018 left a nation in mourning. In our hearts, she'll forever be, the eternal Queen of Bollywood.
Below clips of the two - sadly, there isn't a single picture or clip of the two stars together. And yes, they did meet. Divya Bharti discussed it in the past in a video interview.
Laadla had more seismic changes and shifts behind the scenes that it did on screen, and it was a film production with heavy loads of expectation - the mythic freight as Raj Kanwar’s 1994 industrial melodrama went on to be a massive hit after several hiccups in production.
Adapted from the 1986 Kannada hit Anuraga Aralithu - and its wildly successful 1992 Tamil remake Mannan, the same year as the Telugu release Gharana Mugudu - the narrative centers on Sheetal Jetley, an icy, imperious textile heiress. Sridevi, then the undisputed empress of the Indian cinema, initially turned down the role, hesitant to play a villainous archetype at the height of her stardom as the defining leading lady of Indian cinema.
Said Sridevi in Filmfare, "I was first approached for the film’s Telugu version Gharana Mugudu but I turned it down because I was confused about the character they wanted me to portray. [Years later] Again, I was Nitin Manmohan’s first choice for the Hindi version, I couldn’t say “Yes” because of dates. So Divya was signed. After her tragic death, I was approached again. Since I was the original choice anyway, I don’t think anyone did any kind of lobbying on my behalf... The character has been much more sharply defined in the Hindi version. I play a tough and arrogant woman. It’s a role with plenty of potential."
After Sridevi rejected the offer (something she is prone to do having said no to Beta, Darr, Yugpurush, Dil To Paagal Hai...and infamously Baahubali), the role subsequently went to Divya Bharti, a captivating 19-year-old starlet whose kinetic charm and striking visual resemblance to Sridevi had made her one of Bollywood's most sought-after talents, after her wildly successful debut in Telugu films.
Production was well under way when tragedy intervened. On April 5, 1993, Bharti died following a fatal fall, a shocking accident from the balcony of her fifth-floor Mumbai apartment. The conspiracy theories began the day after - fueled by the ignorant and the illiterate, clutching on to implausible theories instead of facing facts. This would be repeated years later... in 2018!
Left with an unfinished picture, producer Nitin Manmohan and leading man Anil Kapoor, Boney Kapoor implored Sridevi to salvage the project. She agreed, necessitating a comprehensive reshoot of the central character’s scenes.
The transition transformed the film's artistic texture. Where Bharti had played Sheetal with a lighter, straightforward stubbornness, Sridevi brought the rigorous discipline of a 30-year-old veteran. Director Raj Kanwar later detailed how Sridevi layered the role: modulating her cadence across every repetition of Sheetal’s signature refrain ("Understand? You better understand!") and demanding visceral realism, such as splashing her face with water to simulate cold sweat in crucial dramatic beats. How she worked on the look of her character from head to heel.
Co-star Raveena Tandon later observed that the film’s narrative dynamic shifted alongside the casting change. Under Bharti, secondary roles enjoyed wider latitude, but Sridevi’s titanic screen presence naturally re-anchored the feature around Sheetal’s formidable aura. Raveena Tandon felt her role shrunk while Sridevi's expanded, but in the wake of the deaths of Divya and Sridevi, Tandon does not reflect on the history with any bitterness, just matter-of-fact reflection; her role was cut and was not equal to Sridevi's.
It is common in film history to romanticise cut-short careers, bestowing lost youth with retrospective genius. While Bharti was undeniably a vibrant, gifted performer whose trajectory seemed destined for top-tier stardom, Laadla highlights the sharp distinction between a promising teenage star and an auteur-level performer in her prime, "the great Sridevi". The respective fandom of each star loves to state their favourite was better - but this is subjective view not objective observation.
Released on March 17, 1994, Laadla proved a box-office triumph. Beyond its commercial success, the film stands as a compelling case study in cinematic resilience - a testament to how a veteran actor took over a tragic vacancy and definitively made the role her own. The movie runs on the towering performance of Sridevi. The music is lacklustre, the story is predictable, and the ending takes post-modern feminism two steps back... But you don't remember Laadla for an accurate depiction of women in industry, just a bastardised version of Taming of the Shrew with Sridevi providing yet another tour-de-force performance. And of course she was nominated for Best Actress for the n'th time.
PS: What's up with Anil Kapoor letting the ladies walk away with all the glory? Be it Laadla, Judaai, Beta... This is not an insecure actor. Anil just needs a pivotal scene to shine and he often does - providing a capable foil to any co-star or actor. Current leading men will not lend their support or ample stardom to their female contemporaries (unless its their spouse!), but films where women have pivotal roles, the men shy away from... turning up for them. Male stars pay lip service to female empowerment, but God forbid a leading lady get top billing, remuneration, length of role!
Follow the link for archival footage provides a rare look at Divya Bharti's original take on the character of Sheetal before the film was reshot with Sridevi.
Like Bhanupriya, Divya Bharti reminded one so much of Sridevi, it was eerie.
Thankfully, Divya was a Sridevi fan.
Remembering Divya on her birth anniversary today. She would have turned 52...
Fate is a bizarre thing isn't it?
It was shocking then as it is now, the tragic passing of Divya Bharti at age 19. And Sridevi at 54. Divya had more than a passing resemblance to Sridevi and filmmakers tried to give younger Divya clothes, hairstyle, ensembles that resembled Sridevi's former looks, to try and recreate the success of the southern sensation. By the time Divya arrived, Sridevi was an established superstar and producers who couldn't afford Sridevi's famed sky-high remuneration and rates, opted for newcomer Divya Bharti.
Laadla, for example, was originally offered to Sridevi in its Tamil and Telugu version, Gharana Mogudu, but Sridevi refused the film as she found the character too negative and didn't want to tarnish her image, especially in a film with Chiranjeevi when the two had just had a blockbuster run of JVAS. When Gharana Mogudu became a superhit, naturally, it was remade in Hindi as Laadla with Divya Bharthi as a lead, when it was already common knowledge that Sridevi had said no to the original. The tragic passing of Divya during the production of the film halted production and the producers went scrambling to Sridevi who signed the dotted line looking at the success of the film's run down south - a petri dish that often predicted how well the Hindi version would do. And Sridevi took the film to the next level, Laadla was a bona fide hit and remembered singularly for her performance.
Divya played the part when she was 19 and never completed the film, fragments of scenes and songs float online. Sridevi wrapped the film at age 30 and it was a refined, mature, polished performance that landed her a Best Actress nomination for the n'th time. Wonder if she had been nominated in the Best Villain category--as Kajol was for Gupt--Sridevi would have walked away with yet another trophy?
Divya's performance was incomplete... well, comparing apples and oranges, its not worth the argument as the fevered, mob mentality of discussion runs mute with the death of an Indian celebrity, when nuance and critique is unwelcome. Cloaking, cloying sentimentality hovers over rational debate. Sushant Singh Rajput's final films couldn't even be reviewed as rabid fans were in no mood to address either flaw or fact. Today we feel the same about Sridevi critics.
Divya Bharti's short but impactful film career remains a tragedy in all fronts. She was well on her way to become the top star of her time; alas cruel fate took her too soon.
Sridevi was on her way to reach further dizzying heights and again, the world's puppet master snapped her string too soon.
Man proposes, God disposes. Or whatever that bumper car sticker note says...
A movie inspired by the life of Sridevi? Or Divya Bharti?
Here's an idea; neither.
Let them rest in peace.
The no-makeup look of Sridevi and Divya Bharti... their cheeky faces were so similar! Though they were not even remotely related, the resemblance was such that Divya got a career out of it. Her shocking accidental death, by falling off a balcony, remains a scarring memory... and then Sridevi's accidental drowning decades later... devastating.
Had she lived, surely Divya Bharti would have been a major star - and turned 51 today. Alas, taken to the firmament of stars at age 19.
The greater the conspiracy, lower the intellect of the accuser. Look for the strain of logic missing, bizarre science, ludicrous correlation and its questionable causation. Hell, just look at the spelling! Not one bat-shit theory have we published here simply because fate is crueler than man can ever be.
Life isn't fair; get used to it.
With many looks, outfits, colours, styling done deliberately (or coincidentally) to emulate Sridevi, the comparisons began early on -- from the moment she signed her first film, the Telugu, Venkatesh starrer-Bobbili Raja (1990). The south industry embraced her first (she was a Bombay girl--spoke little to no Telugu or Tamil), seeing the similarity between her and her predecessor, the elusive Queen of Indian cinema, Sridevi.
Blissfully, Divya had her own performing style that was nothing like 11-year senior Sri, which helped establish her quickly as more than a clone of an unreachable superstar. Divya's success story was still in the making when she fell to her death in an accident that was reported widely, as the rising star's fatal fall was unprecedented and jaw-dropping news, sending shockwaves around the globe. Many are still haunted by that tragedy that went on to engender such bat-shit conspiracy theories.
Then, 25 years later, Sridevi's accidental death took its toll on fans of Indian cinema too, a similar pattern emerged; disbelief, conspiracies, wild false reporting, sensationalism, cheap reenactment, the whole nine yards.
I'm reminded of the quote, "Why have all the pieces joined together... to create such a cruel fate."
Just a bad, bad, bad idea...
Yes, it was supremely tragic when Divya Bharti died and as she was working on several films at a time, many producers were bound to lose a lotttttttttt of money as half-a-dozen incomplete films lay in the cans. For a quick fix, this horrific idea was entertained - and a sample even published in leading film rags of the time back in 1993!
Thankfully good sense prevailed and they left the poor girl(s) alone.
We have a large gallery of images of Sridevi and Divya Bharti here. Though the two actresses met in person and Dviya confessed to Sridevi that she was a huge fan, sadly, there is no image of them together (at a time before perennial phone-cams!).
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Gorgeous Indian actresses Sridevi and Divya Bharti.
Once upon a time in Bollywood, they were striding to the pinnacle until fate tripped them over.
A lifetime of comparisons, and even in death...
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