‘Her shield is lying in my office!’ Says director Mohanakrishna of Ashta Chemma

Hyderabad Dec 17th : Success and crime seem to be bedfellows. In Bhargavi's, it was literally so, being killed by Praveen, the man who was allegedly married to her. In his meticulous suicide note, Praveen claimed that post-success of Ashta Chemma, Bhargavi's mother was pressurising her to separate from him and that's what made him kill her. The suicide-note also tries to justify his illegal marriage (if at all they are married). Bhargavi's career was definitely on the upswing after small-time roles in films like Pandurangadu and Raksha. "I heard that she signed a good number of films. She couldn't make it for the 100 days function of our film, so her shield is still lying in my office," says director Mohanakrishna of Ashta Chemma, who praised her command over the Telugu language. "She was one of the few actresses who arrived on sets well prepared, never giving out a hint of her personal problems," he adds, expressing shock over her untimely demise. Likewise, TV writer Seeta who's also worked with her for a popular serial Ammamma.com had tears in her eyes. "I couldn't believe it. She was such a cheerful girl and was just climbing the success ladder," says Seeta. But untimely deaths of actresses is queerly enough not new to Tollywood. The unnatural death of yesteryear actress Meenakumari (Sri Krishna Satya) created a stir in the industry. Later, actresses like Leela Rani (Geeta), Sunanda (Jagame Maya), Pragnya (Chinnari Sneham), Sobha (Mana Vuri Pandavulu) added to this fateful list. Unfortunately, for actress 'phataphat' Jayalaxmi, the reel-life sequence uncannily repeated in real-life. In her film Tiruguleni Manishi, she attempts suicide but is saved by her brother (NTR). In reallife, there wasn't anyone to save her at the last moment. The reasons for most such untimely deaths still hover around parental and professional pressure, financial difficulties and rejection by lovers. In the city, murders and suicides have increased in recent times, and cases like Bhargavi's aren't exactly uncommon. It's just that the death of an actress attracts more media attention.