When Aamir Khan replaced Divya Bharti with Juhi Chawla in Darr, she called out his ‘starry attitude’

Divya Bharti started her career when she was just 16-years-old. The actor later rose to success and became one of the highest paying actor of her time. But did you know Aamir Khan replaced her with Juhi Chawla in Sunny Deol and Shah Rukh Khan starrer Darr. Aamir was also later replaced with Shah Rukh Khan. Also Read: When Divya Bharti refused to get out of car on Deewana sets, was terrified producer would scold her

In 1992, after Aamir denied to perform with Divya Bharti on their London tour, she lashed out at him. This incident left her in shock and she cried for hours after this. Actor Salman Khan later came to her rescue and they performed together during the tour.

Divya Bharti later told Stardust in an old interview, “It’s sad that he’s got the attitude that he’s senior and that if we juniors make mistakes we’re out. He should correct me. As a senior he should tell me my mistakes, not take them to heart. He should behave like a senior, not a star. Actually one of the organisers even told me that Aamir felt I was ignoring him. But tell me, what difference does it make to him if I ignore him or not? I always greeted him with a ‘hello sir’. I didn’t ignore him at all. If I did too, it was obvious why. Believe me, I was so upset that I sat in the bathroom and cried for hours. I was very hurt. But I had to be brave and go out there and perform. As we were all paid to do so. I’m still very quite upset with Aamir’s starry attitude. Thank god for Salman and his genuine niceness.”

In 1993, Divya was chosen to play the role of Kiran Awasthi in Darr but was later replaced by Juhi Chawla. In an old Filmfare interview, Bharti’s mother Meeta Bharti said, “Many people still think that Divya lost Darr because she had a problem with Yash Chopra. That wasn’t the case. When Sunny was signed, he wanted Divya opposite him. But Aamir wanted Juhi Chawla. Unfortunately, at that time, we were in America for some shows. Before we left they announced Darr with Sunny, Divya and Aamir. When we returned it was Sunny, Juhi and Aamir. It seemed that Aamir who was also working with Yash Chopra in Parampara, managed to push Juhi and had Divya dropped. After he got Juhi into Darr, he was dropped and Shah Rukh was taken.”

Divya made her debut with a lead role opposite Venkatesh in the Telugu film Bobbili Raja (1990) followed by Nila Pennae and Rowdy Alludu. In 1992, she made her Bollywood debut with Vishwatma (1992). She featured in several films such as Dil Ka Kya Kasoor, Shola Aur Shabnam, Deewana, Balwaan, Dil Aashna Hai, Dushman Zamana among others. Two of her films, Rang and Shatranj had posthumous releases in 1993. She died in 1993 after she fell from her Mumbai home’s balcony.