Tollywood celebs who passed away tragically young

Everyone feels sad to see a life end too soon when someone dies young. In a similar vein, who doesn’t feel sad for the deaths of film stars? With their distinct portrayals, they have entertained and amazed us. We truly love them. They have proved their mettle and settled in the showbiz world, but left us tragically too soon.

Popular in life, young Tollywood stars, Aarthi Agarwal, Uday Kiran, Yasho Sagar, Soundarya, Prathyusha, Silk Smitha, and Srihari became icons in death.

This is perhaps the most famous as well as the most tragic death that Telugu cinema has ever witnessed. Uday Kiran had begun his career in a promising manner with three back-to-back hits - ‘Chitram,’ ‘Nuvvu Nenu,’ and ‘Manasantha Nuvve.’ But things started going downhill for him ever since he broke his engagement with Chiranjeevi’s daughter, Sushmita. His career steadily went on the decline after that and ultimately, the 32-year old committed suicide by hanging himself in his Hyderabad apartment. Chiranjeevi was allegedly blamed for destroying Uday’s career but nothing ever came of it.

Soundarya was one of the biggest actresses of the ‘90s. Over a period of over 12 years, she acted in over 114 films in the Telugu language alone and earned serious critical acclaim. She was praised all over for attempting strong character roles and staying away from safer, glamourous roles. Not just acting, her political career was also starting to look promising before she passed away in a tragic plane crash. On April 17, 2004, Soundarya was on board a flight from Bangalore to Karim Nagar, which crashed and Tollywood lost a great actress.

Another talented actress whose life was snuffed out too early was Bhargavi. She is known for her role in Nani-starrer ‘Ashta Chamma.’ Just a few months after the release of the movie, the actress was found dead in her apartment in Banjara Hills along with orchestra operator, Praveen Kumar. Although suicide was never ruled out, the most popular theory behind her tragic demise was that Praveen, a jilted lover, killed her and later on committed suicide. Whatever happened, one thing is for certain, a great talent was taken away from Tollywood.

The tragic death of Divya Bharathi shook the entire nation. She was a popular name in Tollywood before leaving her mark in B-town in the ‘90s. This gorgeous actress, who worked in both industries, passed away on April 5 1993, when she fell from the fifth floor of her Versova apartment. Her death created a lot of furore in the media. While the cause of death was declared as accidental, murder and involvement of the underworld was suspected. Her death remains one of the biggest mysteries of Indian cinema.

Yasho Sagar was a young and upcoming actor who starred in a film called ‘Ullasamga Utsahamga’ opposite Sneha Ullal in 2008. However, his career was extremely short lived as he passed away in 2012 on December 25. Sagar was involved in a fatal car accident that also took the lives of two of his friends. He was the son of Kannada film producer, B.P.Somu.

Choreographer Vijay passed away due to a natural disaster that took the lives of thousands of others. The dancer had gone to Nepal for shooting a movie titled, ‘Yetakaram.com,’ when the fatal earthquake struck. Vijay died in a car crash triggered by the earthquake.

This Telugu actor and choreographer died in the most bizarre of circumstances. Reportedly, he was in an affair with a married woman and was fleeing her house when her relatives came by. While trying to climb down the pipe, he fell from the sixth floor of the building in Moosapet, Hyderabad, and eventually lost his battle with death.

Aarthi Agarwal, a gorgeous actress who rose to fame in Venkatesh’s ‘Nuvvu Naaku Nachav’ in 2001, died of heart failure on June 6, 2015. She had also suffered from pulmonary illness, according to medical history authorities. After getting married, she had gained extra pounds and later opted to go in for liposuction which caused her death, unfortunately. An actor ever since she played Krishna Veni in Tarun starrer ‘Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu’ when she was seventeen, Aarthi Agarwal was born on March 5, 1984, in New Jersey, United States.

The Tollywood starlet died on February 23, 2002, at the age of 20. Her cause of death is disputed, but the people believed that she committed suicide by herself along with his boyfriend Siddhartha Reddy as their parents were not accepted their marriage. Siddhartha Reddy recovered from the illness, but Prathyusha passed away while undergoing treatment. Although her mainstream career spanned only six years, she is widely regarded as one of the most influential and young promising actresses in the Telugu film industry. She is known for her roles in films such as ‘Rayudu’, ‘Sri Ramulayya’, ‘Samudram’, ‘Snehamante Idera’, and ‘Kalusukovalani’.

Srihari was the part of Bollywood film Shahid Kapoor’s ‘R Rajkumar’. He was shooting for a scene when he fell down from giddiness and was rushed to nearby hospital. He died on October 9, 2013. The cause of his death was a liver ailment. Srihari made his acting debut as a character artist in the 1987 film 'Brahma Nayudu' alongside Krishnam Raju. He rose to superstardom for his role in ‘Deva’ in 1999 as a young man who fights against a notorious gangster to save his father from illness.