Aarthi Agarwal

Aarthi Agarwal (March 5, 1984 – June 6, 2015) was an American actress of Indian origin who primarily worked in Telugu cinema.[5]

Agarwal was born on 5 March 1984 in New Jersey to Gujarati parents.[6] Her father, Shashank, is in the hotel business and her mother, Veema, is a homemaker. She has two siblings. Her younger sister Aditi Agarwal is also an actress in Telugu film industry.[7] At around 14 years of age, actor Sunil Shetty spotted her and invited her to dance on stage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After the performance, he asked her father to encourage her to take up acting in Bollywood. At age 16, she made her debut with Paagalpan.[8]

Agarwal made her Telugu film debut in Nuvvu Naaku Nachav with actor Venkatesh. She was one of the few non-Telugu speaking actresses to work with noted Indian film stars Chiranjeevi, Nandamuri Balakrishna, Nagarjuna, Prabhas, Mahesh Babu, Ravi Teja, and Jr NTR.[3]

In 2005, media reported that Agarwal had attempted suicide over the failure of a romantic relationship with a co-star.[9][1][10] In 2006, following an accident at home, she was hospitalized with internal head injuries at Apollo Hospital, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad and put on ventilator support.[5][11][12]

In 2007, Agarwal married a software engineer; the couple divorced in 2009.[4]

On 6 June 2015, Agarwal was pronounced dead on arrival at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.[13] Agarwal, who had undergone a liposuction surgery six weeks prior, had severe breathing problems before her death.[14][15][16][17] Her manager stated the cause of her death was cardiac arrest.[18][19] She had been living with her parents in Egg Harbor Township.[20][21]