Bollywood Celebrities Who Died Young

1.Divya Bharti: Bollywood lost another starlet with the demise of Divya Bharti at a young age. She was only 19 years old when she died falling from the fifth floor of her Versova apartment. She was a rising talent in films and her death came as a huge shock for the industry. In an interview with idiva, Divya's mother Mita described her as a lovely child who wasn't fond of studying. Divya had married Sajid Nadiadwala at an early age. Speaking about the same, Divya's mother told idiva, “I knew she was married. I’d never have been able to stop her. I supported her so that she’d continue confiding in me and wouldn’t head in another direction.” Reveals Mita in the interview, “They must have had normal tiffs. Sajid and Divya were only together for eight months. Where did they have the time to enjoy life? She was not ambitious. Her aim in life was to marry and have children. She’d joke, ‘I’ll throw my kids in your lap and go to work’.”

2.Smita Patil: She was another one of Bollywood's most loved actresses. Smita Patil had proved her acting prowess with a lot of films, and had a career bejeweled with awards. She was a National Award winner and also a much applauded actress. However her personal life has been debated a lot. She fell in love with Raj Babbar and the two got married. They had a kid, Prateik Babbar. She reportedly died, two weeks after Prateik was born, due to childbirth complications. However things have been strained between Prateik and Raj Babbar. In an interview with Mumbai Mirror, Prateik said, "Dad was never around while I was growing up. He was always busy with his other family and I had to go and meet him at their house. Why did my mother pass away? It still hurts to come to terms with this reality. Over to movies." While Raj Babbar too has his side of the story, talking to Mumbai Mirror, he said, "So far I've felt that if the truth hurts the people close to you, it is not worth telling. I've always thought about my family. And that surely includes Prateik. The good of my family is my primary concern. However, now everyone feels that it's about time I told my version of the truth. And I agree."

3.Taruni Sachdev: Popularly known as the Rasna girl, Taruni Sachdev passed away in a plane crash in Nepal in 2012. She was only 14 years old then, but had worked in numerous advertisements and had done films too. She was the face of Rasna advertisements, and the cute girl became very popular with it. According to a report in The Times of India, Taruni aspired to become an actress, and had told director Vinayan T G (who introduced her to films in 2004), "Uncle, I want to do the heroine's role in your film." She had also done a remarkable role in Amitabh Bachchan's Paa. Big B was shocked with the news. "Shocked and deeply grieved on learning of the tragic end of Taruni. Taruni, a talented little child, who played much beyond her years, cute, confident and so immensely lovable. My prayers!" Big B wrote on Twitter.

4.Jiah Khan: The death of Jiah Khan created a stir in the industry. This young and budding talent was reportedly found dead at her apartment in Juhu in June 2013. She was just 25. As an immediate consequence of the death, Jiah Khan's alleged boyfriend Sooraj Panscholi was arrested on charges of abetment to suicide. According to a report in The Times of India, a six paged letter allegedly written by Jiah was found by the police and that Jiah Khan's mother, Rabia Khan had questioned the suicide theory. In an interview with The Times of India, Rabia Khan opened up about her daughter, saying, "Reports that my daughter was depressed because of work is all rubbish. She was fine; she was sincere, pure and not manipulative at all. She could not stand lies, deception and lies from the only one she loved the most. I am not being revengeful but telling the truth. She fell for a wrong guy." According to a Mumbai Mirror report, the Pancholis had filed a 100 crore defamation case against Rabia Khan. While the legalities are on, Bollywood remembers Jiah as the sensuous beauty of Nishabd.

5.Aarthi Agarwal, who had made her acting debut at the age of 16, with the Bollywood film, Pagalpan, died of cardiac arrest in a hospital in the US after a failed liposuction surgery. Her manager was quoted in an IANS report as saying that, "Aarthi was battling obesity and pulmonary illness. She was undergoing treatment and due to some complications, she suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away." In 2005, she had reportedly attempted suicide after an alleged relationship with a co-star turned bitter and her films did not do well at the box office. After her Bollywood career failed to pick up, Aarthi moved down South. She had made her debut in Telugu films with the hit Nuvvu Naaku Nachav in 2001. She went on to act in hits such as Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu, Indra and Vasantham with stars like Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh and Nagarjuna. However, a source has been quoted in the report as saying that, "From 2008 to 2015 she worked in only four films and was almost forgotten. I think she had put on weight and had decided to undergo surgery."

Like Aarthi, fate was't kind to many Bollywood celebs. Here's taking a look at the celebs whose lives were cut short

10 Bollywood Celebrities Who Died Young

Bollywood stars start their careers at a very young age and go on to become legendary actors. But some of them leave us ahead of their time at a young age. Dealing with showbiz is not that simple, and sometimes it takes the toll on these artists. Let’s take a look at 10 such Bollywood stars who died at a young age:

1.Divya Bharti: Bollywood’s yesteryear budding actress Divya Bharti who entered the industry at a very young age, died under mysterious circumstances. The actress who shot to fame in a really short span of time, died in the year 1993 after falling off from a five storey building in Versova. At the age of only 19, Divya’s death shocked the industry to the core.

2.Jiah Khan: Definitely one of the biggest deaths that shocked the entire Bollywood industry was of actress Jiah Khan. Jiah who committed suicide in the year 2013, passed away at the tender age of 25 leaving the industry in a state of shock. Her suicide letter seemed to indicate failure in this industry as the reason for her huge step. Actor Sooraj Pancholi was also involved in the actress’ suicide investigation case.

3.Aarthi Agarwal: One of the most shocking news of this year was actress Aarthi Agarwal’s death. The cause of actress’s death was said to be a sudden cardio arrest. The 31-year old actress Aarthi Agarwal was fighting obesity and pulmonary illness from a while. Aarthi underwent the risky procedure of liposuction, in order to get in shape for the showbiz and lost her life due to complications in the same.

4.Taruni Sachdev: Bollywood’s cute little angel face star Taruni Sachdev died at a tender age of 14 in a plane crash. The unfortunate mishap took place when the star was travelling back to India from Nepal, and her plane crashed. Best known for her role in the film Paa, Taruni’s death made the whole nation grieve for the young little star.

5.Soundarya: Another actress we lost in plane crash was Soundarya, who was not only a famous face in Bollywood, but also in the Southern film industry. The Suryavanshi actress died near Bangalore in a plane crash, accompanied by her brother who died as well. Soundarya was apparently on her way to Andhra Pradesh when the crash took place. She was only 28 years old.

6.Madhubala: Bollywood’s evergreen beauty Madhubala died at a young age of 39 years after losing a battle to sickness. The actress who is known as the epitome of beauty, is still remembered as an icon and her early death was felt as a loss to the entire film fraternity. Madhubala’s role as Anarkali in the iconic film Mughal-E-Azam is considered legendary.

7.Smita Patil: Another yesteryear beauty whose early death was a huge loss for Indian cinema was none other than actress Smita Patil. National Award and Padma Shri winner Patil passed away at only 31 years due to health problems. Her social work towards upliftment of women in rural India proves that she was one of the most humanitarian stars of her time. Her films also usually were women centric which was a great deal at that time.

8.Silk Smitha: Iconic actress Silk Smitha passed away at the early age of 36 after committing suicide. The actress was found dead in her Chennai apartment. Vidya Balan starrer The Dirty Picture, which was a biopic of Smitha’s life indicates how the showbiz got the best of the actress. Depression and problems in personal life were some of the reasons why Smitha took her life.

9.Abir Goswami: Television actor Abir Goswami died at a very young age of 37 due to cardiac arrest. After making a steady climb in his career with serials like Kkusum and Pyaar Ka Dard Hai, he has also acted in hit films like 2013’s Ugly and Hrithik Roshan starrer Lakshya. Abir passed away in May 2013 after a sudden massive heart attack while he was on a treadmill in his gym.

10.Sanjit Bedi: Popular Television actor Sanjit Bedi passed away recently in June 2015 after losing a battle with prolonged illness. Sanjit was suffering from brain sickness and was in coma for a long time. The actor passed away in June, at a young age of mid forty. Best known for his role in Sanjivani, he also starred in programs like Jaane Kya Baat Hui, Kyaa Hoga Nimmo Kaa and Kasautii Zindagii Kay

Smita Patil (17 October, 1955 to 13 December, 1986)

One of the finest theater and film actresses to have graced the Indian artistic scene; Smita Patil was the epitome of beauty and talent. Winner of two National Awards and recipient of Padma Shri, this Bollywood star had a promising career ahead of her. She was actively involved in causes for upliftment of women and her choice of films to act in also advocated the same to a large extent. However, at the age of 31 on 13th December 1986 her life was cut short due to childbirth complications and we lost this star forever.

Smita Patil was one of the most talented actresses representing parallel Indian cinema. Some of her best films include Manthan, Bhumika and Mirch Masala. However, Smita Patil saw a tragic death right after the birth of her son, now actor, Prateik Babbar. The Bollywood actress died in 1986, at a young age of 31.

Smita Patil was one of the brightest female stars of the late 1970s and early 1980s would be a gross understatement. She was the consummate new cinema actor who could play the complex role of an actress physically and mentally abused by her husband in Bhumika (1977) or be an unapologetic part of popular films such as Namak Halaal (1982) where she’d be a natural at prancing around in the rain singing "Aaj Rapat Jaaye" with the Amitabh Bachchan with equal ease. In fact, amongst the handful of Indian actors who could find themselves at home in any decade and any kind of cinema with just about any filmmaker, Patil’s name would be one of the first to pop up and had death not robbed us of one of our greatest actors, Patil, today, at sixty, would have only become greater still.

In a career spanning only 12 years, Smita Patil touched glories that take a lifetime to achieve.

Great is an honorific that is far too readily, and even easily, attached to anything that is halfway decent. It’s a testimony of the times that we exist in where a couple of hits or a string of medial performances are enough to warrant greatness. But in Smita Patil’s case it’s a claim that has not only been rightfully bestowed but also in one of those rare instances, felicitously bequeathed. For an actor who has been dead for almost three decades now, which incidentally is also half of what her age would have been had she been alive, Patil left such an impression on the hearts and minds of the audience that very few actors both living or dead have managed to replicate.

In a career spanning a little more than a decade, Patil worked in over 80 films, won two National Awards, one of them for Bhumika at the age of 21, making her one of the youngest recipients; a Filmfare (Chakra (1981), which also fetched her a second National Award) and was directed by filmmakers as varied as Shyam Benegal, Govind Nahilani, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ramesh Sippy, BR Chopra and Raj Khosla. Her performance in Mirch Masala (1987) continues to remain a master class in acting and it’s hardly surprising that it was voted as one of the 25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema in the centenary year of Indian cinema.

Patil’s acting and her real life commitment to myriad social issues such as women’s rights, she was a member of the Women's Centre in Mumbai, often amalgamated and perhaps this was the reason why her commitment to both reel as well real was unfeigned.

An alumna of the Film and Television Institute, Pune, Smita Patil belonged to the golden generation of trained actors who were a part of the birth of India’s parallel cinema movement. Like the other great actress of her generation Shabana Azmi, Patil, too, went beyond the new wave when she forayed into the world of popular cinema but unlike Azmi she took a while in committing to commercial cinema. Azmi struck a fine balance between the two worlds, but Patil initially was far more dedicated to smaller cinema.
Once Patil went commercial with Shakti (1982), a film she accepted largely for the opportunity to work with Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and Rakhee, there was no looking back and with just a few films she created a special place for herself in the eyes of the trade as well as fans. Although she enjoyed doing commercial films for the big money that it offered, she knew this wasn’t a setup that made her feel at home. She found the unnatural mode of making them an insult to the individual inside but she never made a tamasha about doing such cinema in spite of her reservations nor did she ever denigrate the people who were a part of it.

Perhaps Smita Patil was cut from the same fabric as Waheeda Rehman, the other great from a couple of generations before her, who, like Patil, was relegated to be second to Nargis or Meena Kumari even though her body of work far outdid most. Many a times cinema witnesses artists come in pairs like Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil that inspire and push each other but often one of them is preordained to remain in the other’s shadow. Patil’s untimely death may have added an extra veneer of greatness to the actress when compared to Azmi, who often ended up walking off with more critical acclaim in the films the two worked together.

Patil was more adept at handling popular film outings and between the two she was the first port of call for commercial filmmakers when it came to playing layered characters. She could play the elderly love interest to men who were drawn to Lolita esque teens in Anokha Rishta (1986), she could play the silent pillar of support to her former husband whose daughter was fighting cancer in Dard Ka Rishta (1982), she could play the concerned sister of an alcoholic lawyer in Thikana (1987), a princess who wanted to break away the cast barrier in Ghulami (1985), she could play the hardened mother who wouldn’t rest till her son avenged his father’s murder in Kasam Paida Karne Waale Ki (1984), a woman whose husband abandons her for her younger sister in Akhir Kyon? (1985), and in one of her final films, Waaris (1988) she played Paro, a widow, who gets her elderly father-in-law remarried for an heir to save the ancestral land.

There are two types of rebels. One variety makes a huge ruckus about the manner in which they change the order of things, while the other kind is the silent ones whose actions end up making the loudest of sounds. Smita Patil belonged to the latter and in her roles millions of women found an icon mirroring their own trials, joys and struggles and a search for an identity.

Smita Patil died due to complications following childbirth on December 13, 1986, at the age of 31. Patil’s premature death might have made her untouchable but at the same time also subtly changed the trajectory of Azmi’s career by pushing her to a venerable position as an actor before time thereby depriving her of challenges. Patil got enough accolades for her role in Arth (1982) and she believed that hers was a far more nuanced character to play than Azmi’s but wasn’t too satisfied with the way the roles were tinkered around midway. In just a decade in cinema she showed streaks of brilliance and in that short period did roles that sometimes take a lifetime to come along. Her characters garnered praise and attention and not the reverential kind that often take away the freedom from actors to push themselves further.