Trigger warning: This article mentions the death of a person,
Divya Bharti’s sudden demise in 1993 shocked fans and industry insiders. She was just 19 years old and was working in various films including Laadla when this incident happened. Recently, Anees Bazmee, who wrote the script for the film, recalled that he had almost completed shooting the film, but after Divya’s death the script had to be revised and re-shot with Sridevi. .
In a candid interview with Galata India, Anees Bazmee shared various anecdotes from various films in his career including Laadla. For those unaware, Divya Bharti was initially selected to play the lead role in the film and had completed most of its shooting. However, his sudden demise leaves Ladla in uncertainty.
As a result, he approached Sridevi to play the role. Bazmee told that Laadla was a remake of a South film. So, the Chandni actress had earlier rejected it in Tamil and Telugu due to some issues. Therefore, he had to make changes to the script to work on those issues to ensure that he was confident in playing the role.
He said, “Boney Kapoor had warned me that she might refuse to do the film even in Hindi, but I insisted that she arrange a meeting. Before meeting her, I had told her to reject the first two versions. Thought about the reasons behind and made some adjustments accordingly. When I told her the revised version of the story, she got excited.”
The writer-filmmaker shared that Divya’s sudden demise left producer Nitin Manmohan shocked as most of the film had been completed except the climax. However, he continued work despite his grief over the demise of the Deewana actress and started shooting again.
Anees said, “He (the producer) picked himself up and we started shooting again. The second time, the film was shot very quickly because we had already made it once. It was a superhit.”
Laadla starred Sridevi and Anil Kapoor in the lead roles. Raj Kanwar directed it and it became one of the highest-grossing films of 1994.
Also read: Jab Singh Is King director Anees Bazmee narrated the script of the film to Akshay Kumar over the phone; ‘Then we will go straight to Australia…’
