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A biography of Parveen Babi by journalist Karishma Upadhyay gently unravels a life less ordinary

As Upadhyay tells the story of Parveen Babi, along the way emerges a picture of Bollywood in its flower-power era, and the misconceptions about mental health that prevented a vulnerable woman from receiving the care she needed.

In Parveen Babi: A Life (Hachette India), film journalist Karishma Upadhyay traces the journey of a shy but ambitious girl from an aristocratic family in Junagadh, Gujarat, to the merciless scrutiny of the Bollywood spotlight. Drawing on interviews with industry veterans and close friends, as well as a wealth of archival material, Upadhyay unravels the individual who was Parveen Babi.

Along the way emerges a picture of Bollywood in its flower-power era, and the misconceptions about mental health that prevented a vulnerable woman from receiving the care she needed.

You’ve worked on this book about Parveen Babi for three years. Could you walk us through the process, from your publisher suggesting the idea to the moment when you decided that this was a life and story you wanted to delve into, to the research and writing of it?

The first thing I did when an editor from Hachette got in touch with me about writing this book was to ask one of my oldest friends in the industry about Parveen. Until then, I knew very little about her life — the iconic songs and movies like Deewar and Amar Akbar Anthony . His immediate reaction was ‘what a fascinating life’ and then he told me a little about her and about interviewing her in the ’90s after she had returned [from the US>. I was immediately hooked.

Research for the book seemed to be a never-ending but very fulfilling process. At heart, I am a reporter so meeting new people and uncovering details that have been forgotten or lost is very exciting for me. I knew it would be hard to find information about Parveen’s life before and after movies but I didn’t realise just how hard. People in the industry are used to talking about their lives but people outside, like the couple that she lived with in Bengaluru or the priests she interacted with towards the end of her life weren’t. So, convincing them was hard. Also, there is lot of disdain towards film magazines in regular libraries. Even repository libraries like Asiatic in Mumbai that are supposed to have everything that’s printed, don’t have old film magazines.

You’ve traced Babi’s life from her childhood in Junagarh to college years in Ahmedabad, the various phases of her Bombay career, the time in the US after her second breakdown. Which of these places was most interesting to you as a writer, to explore who she’d been when living in them?

For me, the most fascinating parts of Parveen’s life were those years she spent in Ahmedabad. I got a sense of who she was and who she moulded herself into, in those three-four years. Her journey from being a quiet, small-town girl who was unsure of herself, to someone who captivated audiences in auditoriums, taught herself a whole new language and eventually made the decision to pursue a career in films is quite remarkable. This period added dimensions to her personality that most people wouldn’t have known about.

When talking to people about her for the book, and when researching her life, was there an anecdote or insight that really stayed with you? Why did it make such a deep impression?

As someone who loves films and trivia, there’s a little nugget of information about the song ‘ Pag Ghunghroo ’ from Namak Halal that completely blew my mind (but no spoilers here!). Also, Parveen’s reaction to being replaced at the last moment by Yash Chopra, not once but twice really shows us who she was. She was kind and respectful but was no pushover. She made sure that Chopra understood that he owed her one.

Do you have a favourite film featuring Babi? What do you enjoy about her performance in the film?

I don’t have a favourite Parveen film but there’s a scene in Kaalia that I absolutely love. It’s where Amitabh Bachchan’s character is teaching her how to make an omelette and she smashes the egg on her forehead. This scene made me laugh out loud as a kid and still does.

The depiction of the “Juhu Gang” — Bollywood’s own version of Hollywood’s Rat Pack — made for very engaging reading. Could you give our readers a brief sense of the culture and scene at that time?

In the ’70s, there was a social group that included actors, directors and star kids who often met and partied together. Most of them lived around Juhu so it was called the Juhu Gang. The group included the likes of Shekhar Kapur, Shabana Azmi, Jalal Agha, Danny Denzongpa, Kabir and Protima Bedi. There were all-night parties on the beach, midnight bus rides to Mount Mary Church and sunset swims at Sun n’ Sand Hotel. Legendary filmmaker Chetan Anand’s son Ketan told me, ‘Some mornings, you wondered how you got to where you woke up’. The members of the group turned to spiritual gurus for enlightenment and dabbled in drugs. Most of those I spoke with were very categorical in stating that Parveen never did drugs of any kind.

You’ve addressed the imaginary rivalry that was manufactured between Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi. What in your mind set the actresses apart, despite both of them being held up as these ‘Bohemian sirens’ in Bollywood?

I actually don’t think Zeenat and Parveen were very different on screen. Both brought a certain amount of sex appeal the others probably didn’t. It was off-screen that one can really make out the differences. I think Parveen was a lot more candid about her life whereas Zeenat wasn’t.

In the book, there are chunks of Parveen’s life that can be viewed through the prism of her relationships with four men: Danny Denzongpa, Kabir Bedi, Mahesh Bhatt, UG Krishnamurti. Would you briefly encapsulate the various stages of her life that these equations represented?

All four men were a part of Parveen’s showbiz years. She met both Danny and Mahesh on the sets of her first film Charitra . In her formative years in the industry, she was in a relationship with Danny. They parted when Parveen and Kabir started seeing each other. Though he was still married, Kabir moved in with Parveen. She believed in the relationship enough to leave her career in the movies to follow him to Italy and then London. Her relationship with Mahesh started when she returned broken hearted from London. Parveen met UG Krishnamurti for the first time while she was seeing Kabir, but her emotional dependence on him as a spiritual guide began after she had her first public breakdown. UG tried to help Parveen as much as he could over the next five years but when she disappeared from New York, he distanced himself.

Parveen Babi seemed to inspire a fierce loyalty among her close circle even though being with her during her breakdowns can’t have been easy in the slightest — Ved Sharma and Xerxes Bhathena come to mind. What drew these people to her?

I think it was the fact that she was genuinely invested in them and that she was kind and generous. Even her driver, Hanuman Patre who worked with her through this decade, sings her praises because she treated him with the same respect and courtesy that she would show any director or producer. Even towards the end when Parveen was finding it hard to keep a grip on reality, she’d remember the names of the lightmen or spotboys on her sets and talk to them.

You make some striking observations about Parveen’s role in a couple of films — Deewar and Razia Sultan — in the book that our readers might find particularly interesting.

The characters Parveen played in both Deewaar and Razia Sultan were not what leading actresses of the time would have signed up for. Her character Anita owns her sexuality and isn’t coy about sleeping with a man out of marriage. Film magazines at the time referred to her character as a ‘call girl’. Deewaar is credited as the film that cemented Bachchan’s ‘angry young man’ image, but most ignored the economic, social and sexual autonomy the writers gave Anita’s character. This new female protagonist prototype was very different from what we had seen in Hindi films before.

In Kamal Amrohi’s Razia Sultan , Parveen played Khatun, a close confidante of Hema Malini’s Razia. There is a hint of homoeroticism between the two ladies in the song ‘ Khwab Ban Kar Koi Aayega ’ when Khatun covers Razia’s and her face with a large white plume. Remember this was released in the early 1980s when homosexuality was punishable by law and no one talked about these things openly.

How do you view the life of Parveen Babi?

It was a tragic life. She came to Bollywood to build a life for herself but untreated mental health issues meant that she couldn’t sustain her career. She craved love and stability but none of her relationships lasted.

Are there any lessons or cautionary tales that Bollywood or the PR/gossip machinery or the field of entertainment journalism should have picked up from Parveen Babi’s life, but didn’t?

Empathy. There was a distinct lack of empathy when Parveen was written about towards the end of her career in the early ’80s and then briefly in the late ’90s and early 2000s when she made wild public accusations. And, in light of everything that’s going on in Bollywood today, empathy is still not a concept we seem to have understood let alone mastered.

Read an excerpt from Parveen Babi: A Life by Karishma Upadhyay. Excerpted with permission from Hachette India —

Parveen Babi: A Life by Firstpost on Scribd

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Parveen Babi Wiki, Age, Death, Height, Boyfriend, Husband, Family, Biography & More

Parveen Babi was an Indian film actress, model, and interior designer. Her last appearance was in the Hindi film, ‘Iraada’ (1991).

Wiki/Biography

Parveen Babi was born on Monday, 4 April 1949 ( age 55 years; at the time of death ), in Junagadh, Gujarat. Her zodiac sign was Aries. She did her schooling from Mount Carmel High School, Ahmedabad. Later, she attended St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad and did Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. [1] SXCA

Physical Appearance

[2] IMDB Height: 5′ 7″

Eye Colour: Black

Hair Colour: Black

Family & Caste

She was born in a Royal Muslim family, the Pathans of Gujarat. Her ancestors were the Nawabs of Junagarh who belonged to Babi tribe of Pashtuns and were settled in Gujarat. [3] Independent [4] IMDb

Parents & Siblings

Her father, Vali Mohammed Khan Babi used to work as a system administrator with the Nawab of Junagadh and died in 1959, when Parveen was only 10 years old. Parveen’s mother, Jamal Bakhte Babi died in 2001. Parveen was the only child of her parents and was born after fourteen years of her parents’ marriage.

Parveen Babi With Her Mother

Relationships, Husband & Children

It is said that she was in a relationship with Siddharth Bhattacharjee in Ahmedabad, before starting her career as an actor. [5] IMDb

Parveen Babi-Amitabh Bachchan

She was in a love relationship with the legendary Bollywood actor, Amitabh Bachchan . At that time, Amitabh was already married to Jaya Bachchan . When the news of their love affair came in media, Amitabh left her. Later, in an interview, Parveen said,

Amitabh Bachchan is a super international gangster. He is after my life. His goons kidnapped me and I was kept on an island where they performed a surgery on me and planted a transmitter or chip right under my ear.

She even filed a police complaint against him, but Amitabh got a clean chit from the court as she was suffering from Schizophrenia, a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. [6] Tribune

Parveen Babi and Amitabh Bachchan

Parveen Babi-Danny Denzongpa

After her short span love affair with Amitabh Bachchan, she started dating another Bollywood actor, Danny Denzongpa in the 70s. She was in a relationship with Danny for almost four years.

In an interview, Danny Denzongpa said,

We were two young kids and we lived together for four years. That was big news those days. We had a wonderful time, but later we grew apart and parted on a good note. We remained friends.”

Even after their breakup, Parveen used to visit Danny’s house more often. Danny shared an incident in an interview, he said,

Parveen would keep inviting me for dinner. I had a new girlfriend (actor Kim) those days. She was wary of Parveen. Also, if your ex walks into the house anytime like a mother hen, it would be difficult for any girl to accept. I would pick up Kim from the sets after pack up and reach home only to find Parveen in my bedroom, watching a movie on the VCR. I asked Parveen not to do it. But she’d say, ‘We don’t have anything between us, we are friends.” [7] Bollywood Shaadis

Parveen Babi and Danny Denzongpa

Parveen Babi-Kabir Bedi

After parting with Danny, she dated the Bollywood actor, Kabir Bedi for almost two years. But due to their professional commitments, they broke up. In an interview, Parveen said,

He’s getting opportunities in the West and I don’t expect him to kick them down for my sake. I set him free since this is the time when he has to make the best of his career without any hassles. It’s not a sacrifice on my part, I am not a martyr, it’s just more resignation to a situation I can’t control.” [8] India.com

Pictures of Kabir Bedi and Parveen Babi

Parveen Babi-Mahesh Bhatt

Out of her all love relationships, her love affair with the Bollywood director, Mahesh Bhatt is the most talked about.

In 1977, she was in a post-break-up phase with Kabir Bedi. During this time, she met the famous Indian director, Mahesh Bhatt. At that time, Mahesh Bhatt was already married to Lorraine Bright aka Kiran Bhatt and had a daughter, Pooja Bhatt. Everything was going well between the two until an incident in 1979. In an interview, he shared that incident, he said,

Parveen was dressed in film costume and sat curled up in the corner between the wall and the bed. Her gait was beast-like. She had a kitchen knife in her hand. ‘What are you doing?’ I asked. She said, ‘Shhsssh…! Don’t talk! This room is bugged (installed with a spying device). They’re trying to kill me; they’re going to drop a chandelier on me.’ She held my hand and led me outside. I saw her mother look helplessly at me. Her gaze revealed that this episode had happened before; it was not the first time.”

After a series of such incidents, in October 1979, Mahesh Bhatt left Parveen with one of his friends for her treatment. Mahesh said that he believed that he was the part of Parveen’s problem. He had to distance himself from her and sort out problems in his married life.

In the same year, Parveen went back to Mahesh. In an interview, Mahesh said,

Parveen knew I was in touch with UG, who was against her returning to films. He was the voice of sanity, which she didn’t want to hear. So she played the last card,” as they were about to make love, she asked him to choose between her or the philosopher.

After this incident, Mahesh and Parveen broke up in 1980. [9] India Today

A Cropped Picture of Parveen Babi and Mahesh Bhatt

Reportedly, in 1983 she was in a relationship with Abdul Ella whom she met through her spiritual guru U. G. Krishnamurthy. He was a businessman from Dubai. That relation did not last long, and she never got married. [10] IMDb

Parveen started her career as a model in 1972. While she was studying at Ahmedabad University, she was spotted by the Indian director, B. R. Isharain. He got impressed by her westernised look and offered her a role in the Bollywood film, ‘Charitra’ in 1973. The film failed to do well at the box-office, but her western and bold look grabbed the attention of the audience. Her first hit film was ‘Majboor’ (1974), opposite Amitabh Bachchan. She acted in more than fifty Hindi films, including ‘Deewaar’ (1975), ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ (1977), ‘Suhaag’ (1979), ‘Kaala Patthar’ (1979), ‘Shaan’ (1980), ‘Kranti’ (1981), ‘Namak Halaal’ (1982), ‘Bond 303’ (1985), and ‘Avinash’ (1986).

She was featured in some popular Hindi film songs, like “Teri jheel se gehri aankhon mein” from ‘Dhuen Ki Lakeer’ (1974), “Humko tumse ho gaaya hai pyaar” from ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ (1977), “Jawani jaaneman haseen dilruba” & “Raat baki baat baki” from ‘Namak Halaal’ (1982), and “Angrezi mein kehte hai ke I love you” ‘Khuddaar’ (1982).

In 1983, she started working as an interior designer. In 2001, she appeared in the Hindi TV show, ‘Simply Shekhar.’

Controversies

Parveen was considered as one of the most controversial actresses in 70s-80s. Apart from her controversial love life, there were other controversies related to her.

• Once, she filed a few police complaints against 34 parties, including Amitabh Bachchan and former US President Bill Clinton. She accused them of killing her, but her cases were dismissed as she was suffering from Schizophrenia. [11] I Diva
• On 7 April 1984, she was caught at John F. Kennedy International Airport as she failed to submit her papers. She was handcuffed and was with mentally challenged patients. When the Indian Consul General met her she smiled and behaved as nothing had happened. [12] Indian Express
• In 1993, she filed an affidavit stating that she had evidence against the Bollywood actor, Sanjay Dutt in Mumbai bomb blasts case. But due to her mental disorder, she could not step out of her house. [13] I Diva

At the time of her death, she was living in the seventh-floor house in Palm Beach, Riviera Heights, Juhu in Mumbai.

At the time of her death, she had a sea-facing flat with four bedrooms in Juhu, a haveli in Junagadh (worth Rs 4.5 crore) [14] Web Archive . Her jewellery and deposits worth Rs 20 lakh in banks plus other investments. Out of which 80% of the total wealth was given to underprivileged children and women who belong to the Babi community of Junagadh and 20% of the wealth was given to her maternal uncle. [15] India Today

Parveen Babi’s Signature

Favourite Things

• Actor(s): Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Feroz Khan, Dilip Kumar , and Sanjeev Kumar
• Actresses: Waheeda Rehman and Meena Kumari
• Singer(s): Lata Mangeshkar , Mohammed Rafi , and Asha Bhosle

She was found dead at her Juhu flat on 22 January 2005. Her society members informed police that she was not collecting her newspaper and milk for the past three days. In her post-mortem report, it was stated that she was dead for the past 72 hours before her body was detected by the police in her room. It was said, that she had died due to multiple organ failure due to diabetes. [16] India Today

She was suffering from diabetes for a long time, and one of her feet was gangrenous. She used a wheelchair to move in her house. She expressed her desire to be buried as per Christian rites, but her relatives who claimed her body performed Islamic rites. She was buried at Juhu Muslim cemetery in Santacruz, Mumbai along with other Bollywood celebrities such as Mohammed Rafi, Madhubala, Sahir Ludhianvi , Talat Mahmood, and Naushad Ali. Five years later, due to lack of space, their graves were relocated.

In her post-marten report, prepared at Cooper Hospital, it was stated that,

There were no traces of food in her stomach, but some alcohol (possibly from her medication) was found and it is possible that she had not consumed anything for more than three days and as a consequence starved to death.”

On her demise, Amitabh Bachchan said,

She brought in a new, bohemian kind of leading lady to the screen. We’d work on all these films and go our own way. But because we belonged to the same social circle we’d visit each other and listen to music. She was a very fun loving, light-hearted person. Always full of joie de vivre!”

Parveen’s ex-boyfriend, Mahesh Bhatt was the one to claim her body, he said,

I thought if none of her relatives came forward I’d bury her.”

Facts/Trivia

• Her real name was Parveen Moammed Ali, and her full name was Parveen Wali Mohammad Khan Babi. [17] Independent [18] IMDb
• She used to smoke and drink alcohol. [19] English News Track Live   [20] Times of India
• In an interview, the Bollywood actor, Danny Denzongpa said,

I remember the first time I noticed something abnormal about Parveen. I had been for dinner at her place. There were silver conches on the table. When I began blowing one, she got frightened. That’s when Mahesh said, ‘She gets easily frightened these days and is turning into a recluse’. A few days later Mahesh confided again “Parveen’s unwell. She cares for you and you must come over and give her support. Whenever Parveen needed me, I was always there.”

• Danny revealed why Parveen had cut off ties with him, he said,

One day she happened to read an interview, where Amitji had mentioned that I was a good friend of his. That was it. When I went to meet her the next time, she looked at me through the keyhole and refused to let me in, calling me his agent. She was frightened of me too.”

• The Bollywood director & former boyfriend of Parveen, Mahesh Bhatt directed a film based on Parveen’s life, titled ‘Arth’ in 1982.

• After Parveen’s breakup with Danny, she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. In an interview, Mahesh Bhatt shared an incident which was due to schizophrenia, he said,

She threw open the door of the moving car, saying the bomb would burst and ran out on the road with me trying to hold her. People thought ‘Parveen Babi’ was having a fight with her boyfriend. Somehow, I huddled her into a taxi and brought her home.”

U. G. Krishnamurti With Parveen Babi

Parveen Babi Featured at Time Magazine’s Cover

• Parveen worked in eight films opposite Amitabh Bachchan and most of the films were superhit.
• In 1984, she wrote her autobiography and left the manuscript with U. G. Krishnamurthy, but the book was never published.
• It is said that her mental condition deteriorated post her breakups and her condition got worsened day by day. In 1989, she had put a lot of weight and was unrecognisable. Her secretary, Ved Sharma’s son said in an interview,

She had a homely side too. At home she’d be simply dressed in jeans. She’d attend our birthday parties. She’d give us an envelope (of cash) so that we could buy whatever we wished. For groceries and essentials, she’d slip the money through the door and collect the milk and eggs once the man had left.” Once she had stepped out to buy something when a bus passed close to her near the Hare Rama Hare Krishna temple in Juhu. She believed that someone had sent the bus to kill her.

A Black and White Photo of Parveen Babi

• In an interview, her secretary’s son, Lalit said,

She didn’t trust the doctors. Anyone who suggested she should see a psychiatrist became her enemy, even her mother!” “She even believed that the January 26, 2001 earthquake in Kutch was planned because she had a water tank on the terrace and ‘they’ wanted to kill her by crushing it. If her car didn’t work, she’d believe that someone had deliberately tampered with it. Once I went to her kitchen to keep my plate, I was appalled at the filth and stink. For someone who was once a cleanliness freak, this was shocking. Her beautiful terrace flat was a mess. It had heaps and heaps of newspapers which were categorised in sections like politics, health, entertainment etc.” Parveen Babi After Gaining Weight

• Even in her will, she had assigned shares of her property to her dead relatives. [21] I Diva
• She converted to Christianity and was baptised at Protestant Anglican Church at Malabar Hill. [22] News 18
• On 30 July 1983, she went to New York for a spiritual journey along with U. G. Krishnamurti and her friend, Valentine.

Parveen Babi and Zeenat Aman

Parveen Babi Featured on a Magazine Cover

• During the early 1990s, whenever the media people used to visit her, she would often ask them to eat her food and drink her water, to check whether her food was not poisoned.
• In the last four years of her life, Babi used to record her every phone call and whatever she speaks. Some of the collection of her notepads are kept in the office of the State Administrator General of the Government of Maharashtra.
• A few months before her death, she hosted a Christmas dinner at her flat and one of her guests was Reverend Avinash Rangayya (the pastor of All Saints Anglican Church, Church of North India at Malabar Hill).
• In an interview in 1998, she talked about her religion, she said,

I was born a Muslim and later, I converted to Christianity. But I have never done things I didn’t believe. Even when I was a Muslim, I didn’t understand why it made me a more spiritual entity, if I did not eat pork. I always felt that the essence of spirituality lies in being a good human and following good, positive principles. The Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant at the Taj, those days, was quite famous for pork delicacies and every time I got a break from shooting, I would rush off to the Golden Dragon. Whenever my friends questioned me about my eating pork, I would say that it was more important for me to be a human being than a racist.”

• She used to play the piano, do painting, and study literature books.
• She used to eat pork at The Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant at the Taj, Mumbai.
• In an interview to a reporter in 1998, she said,

Today, the majority of the industry has cut ties with me because of one man… Anyway, I don’t feel let down. On the contrary, I feel it’s their loss. The film industry is wonderful in the beginning, when you are in your youth. But then, it doesn’t let you grow in any other direction. The reason I didn’t attempt to make a comeback in the industry, is firstly because this man is still there and secondly, over the years, I have discov­ered a whole new world outside. Writing, philosophy, painting, organized thinking, great and classic litera­ture… There is just one life and so much to achieve.”

An Old Picture of Parveen Babi

• Within nine days of Parveen’s death, her nephew, Javed Ahmed Noor Ahmed Shaikh who claimed to be her adopted son appeared in the Bombay High Court to claim her Juhu flat and her estate in Junagadh, with the total worth of Rs 4.5 crore. [23] Web Archive
• In 2007, a Hindi film was released on her life titled, ‘Parveen Bobby.’
• The famous Indian fashion designer, Manish Malhotra talked about her dressing sense, he said,

Parveen Babi brought minimalism into fashion. She was always impeccable, not overdoing it even once.”

References [+] [−]

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On Parveen Babi's birth anniversary, five interesting facts about her life

Parveen babi left a long-lasting legacy as she achieved many milestones and broke stereotypes..

Parveen Babi left a huge impact on pop culture with her charisma, elegance, glamour and artistry. The actor worked in some remarkable films during her lifetime. Despite her unfortunate demise at the age of 50 years, her filmography is full of classics that redefined cinema. Here are some interesting facts about her life that make her an exception among her then-contemporaries. (Also read: Mahira Khan pays homage to Parveen Babi in new photo shoot, reveals struggling after multiple fractures in foot )

Parveen Babi was among the highest paid actors of her era

The actor was considered the biggest competitor of Zeenat Aman as both of them came from a modelling background. Parveen and Zeenat went on to work with popular actors like Amitabh Bachchan , Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor and Shatrughan Sinha. She became one of the highest paid actors of her time since she worked in many blockbuster movies, as reported by Indiatimes .

Parveen Babi featured on the cover page of TIME magazine

Parveen entered the entertainment industry after her brief modelling career in 1972. Her stunning persona and stardom made her a rage among the audiences. She became the first Indian to appear on the cover page of TIME Magazine.

Parveen Babi took up American nationality

Parveen's last Bollywood film was Shatrughan Sinha -Moon Moon Sen starrer Iraada (1991). She left the film industry after that and took up American nationality.

Parveen Babi redefined fashion in Bollywood

Parveen and Zeenat were the two female actors who were the face of young-urban India. The duo broke stereotypes about gender dynamics and introduced a Western style statement in Indian pop culture. Being a former model, Parveen effortlessly donned gowns, crop tops, skirts and beachwear. She looked equally mesmerising in traditional saris and salwar suits. Lauding her, designer Manish Malhotra was once quoted saying, “Parveen Babi brought minimalism into fashion. She was always impeccable, not overdoing it even once.”

Parveen Babi's biopic on silver-screen

While there were reports about a biopic on Parveen recently, Mahesh Bhatt already made his version of the actor's life story in 2006. The filmmaker backed Woh Lamhe, directed by his nephew Mohit Suri. The romantic drama featured Shiney Ahuja and Kangana Ranaut in pivotal characters. Kangana's character Sana Azim was inspired by Parveen Babi. The film depicted Mahesh Bhatt's relationship with the late actor.

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Parveen Babi was ‘flesh-and-blood with contradictions, ambitions and aspirations’, says biographer

‘parveen babi: a life’ retraces the movie star’s formative years, her showbiz experiences, and her lifelong struggle with schizophrenia..

Mumbai journalist Karishma Upadhyay took three years to research and write Parveen Babi: A Life , which has been published by Hachette India. The biography has been released at a time when a debate rages about dead celebrities, mental illness, the dark side of showbiz, and the role of the media in building up and tearing down actors.

On the surface, there is little to connect Babi’s demise on January 20, 2005, and Sushant Singh Rajput’s death on June 14 this year. While Babi, a major star in Hindi films in the 1970s and 1980s, died from natural causes, Rajput died by suicide. (The Central Bureau of Investigation is looking into allegations of abetment of suicide and embezzlement). Yet, there are some elements in common. Babi struggled with schizophrenia through much of her career, leading to episodes of debilitating paranoia, breaks from the sets and turbulent off-screen relationships. Rajput, by several accounts, was dealing with bipolar disorder before his death.

One figure bizarrely connects the stars and their tragic trajectories. Babi returned to India in the mid-1980s after undergoing treatment in the United States, a bloated and nearly unrecognisable version of her former self. Her co-star Amitabh Bachchan was fixated in her troubled mind as her biggest adversary, somebody whom she claimed had repeatedly tried to kill her and interfere with her relationships.

In 2002, she repeated many of her paranoia-fuelled allegations against Bachchan when the actor Shekhar Suman interviewed Babi for his talk show. Sensational, exploitative and unfeeling about Babi’s condition, Suman’s interview further solidified the image of her as an unhinged mess.

After Rajput’s death, Suman was among the people who speedily inserted himself into the conversation, making statements on behalf of the departed actor and even travelling to Patna to meet Rajput’s grief-stricken father. Karishma Upadhyay’s fluidly written and solidly researched biography eschews judgement or facile moralising, providing a vivid portrait of the severe lack of empathy faced by a woman with a serious mental condition.

The book contains Babi’s voice, reproduced from her own writings and interviews, as well as insights provided by key figures in her life, including her friend and costume designer Xerxes Bhatena and men with whom she had romantic relationships, Danny Denzongpa, Mahesh Bhatt and Kabir Bedi. We learn about Babi’s childhood and formative years, her entry into modelling and the film industry, the early warning signs of schizophrenia that were dismissed as character tics, and the descent into all-consuming illness.

“Parveen’s life was like a mirror that shattered into a million pieces,” Upadhyay writes. “Each shard had its own little story – of beauty, fame and fortune; of hard work, determination and humility. It was the shadow cast by her illness that would never allow the mirror to be put back together and made whole again.”

In an interview with Scroll.in , Upadhyay talks about the efforts that went into reassembling the shards into a portrait of an actor who lived life on her own terms, however difficult they may have been.

Who is the Parveen Babi we will meet in your biography? A real person, flesh-and-blood with contradictions, ambitions and aspirations – she was all of that.

The book is extremely well-researched. We learn of Parveen Babi’s childhood in Junagadh, her years as a student at St Xavier’s College in Ahmedabad, her initial career as a model. How challenging was it to unearth these details? The book has missed so many deadlines. But it didn’t feel right as a reporter – you had to make sure you had done everything possible.

It took me nearly two years to dig out her early years. One of the first things I tried figuring out was who was still around from her immediate family. Her mother [Jamal] passed away before she did. She lost her father [Wali Mohammed Khanji] when she was a kid. She was the only child.

I started asking around with people who had worked with her. Everybody spoke of this one gentleman called Javed, who was her cousin’s son and who had been with her mother from the time he was 10. Javed was very reluctant to talk, but over a period of time, I guess I wore him down.

I also went to Ahmedabad and met her friends from college. I went to Gangtok to interview Danny Denzongpa, and to Pune to meet Amol Palekar [Babi’s co-star in Rang Birangi , 1983].

The book has around 60 people who have been quoted. I spoke to over a hundred. There were people who spoke to me, and then people who refused point blank too.

What impression did Parveen Babi make on her acquaintances? One of the earliest bits I got to know about was her fantastic memory. When people talk about her, they talk about the glamorous bits, but also the intelligent and well-read side.

People who had known her spoke of her very fondly. Everybody said how cultured and intelligent she was. She could hold conversations on everything from pop culture to philosophy. It says a lot about her – there were enough people who genuinely loved working with her. I spoke to a cameraman for two hours, who told me how she would lift lights on the sets and remember the name of every light boy.

There were others who dismissed her as, woh to pagal thi [She was insane]. These people supplemented that with, she was an alcoholic, led a promiscuous life, and was on drugs all the time.

How did you sift the innuendo and gossip from the facts? Those were the things I was very careful about. Memories are tricky. It’s not like people remember things the way they are meant to be. If somebody told me she had a certain habit, I would get other people to tell me something similar to confirm it. For instance, somebody from her college told me she was a drug addict at the age of 16. I asked around, and then ten people told me she wasn’t. I decided to go with the majority. A lot was removed that wasn’t backed by enough substantial evidence.

Danny Denzongpa, Parveen Babi’s first boyfriend in the film industry, is remarkably frank in his interview. Danny had almost never spoken about her in the past. He is incredibly private as a person. It took me a good six months to get through to him. We spent a few hours in his home in Gangtok, where he spends most of his time. He was quite candid. I didn’t know him at all and I am glad he did the interview.

Parveen Babi was, at best, a competent performer, and was better known more for her screen presence. How did you even out her lack of a discernible body of work with her struggle with mental illness? Regardless of how she performed, she was a part of some very successful films. Her legacy, which is intertwined with Zeenat Aman’s, went a long way in changing how we look at heroines, how they were portrayed, and even how they dressed.

I wanted to balance the earlier bits with what the directors thought of her, her work ethic and her diligence. I wanted to make sure that we don’t just see her as someone who suffered from a mental illness, but also remember her as an actress.

What do you hope the book will do for the debate about mental illness in the film industry? There was so much gossip about her that if I meet even one person tomorrow who says, I thought she did drugs and she didn’t, I will be very happy.

I don’t know if we have had celebrity biographies that talk about the person’s mental health issues in so much detail. I am hoping the book will dispel some of the myths that people have about who can get affected and what are the larger repercussions.

My place is not to judge. Let the reader walk away with what they want to walk away with. At the end of the day, what makes people do what they do? Nobody really knows.

With Parveen Babi, there is always the ‘what if’ question – what would have been if she didn’t have schizophrenia? Could she have become an artist? A writer? An interior decorator? Or led a quiet life where no one recognised her and she lived the way she wanted to live? What if – I don’t know.

Book excerpt: How Parveen Babi disarmed (and alarmed) journalists during her early years in showbiz

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Parveen Babi

When Parveen Babi, who has died aged 50, began her film career, there were two kinds of women in Indian movies, the virtuous and the vamps. Babi made a break with both stereotypes. She offered instead a woman who was westernised, cool, sexy and vivacious. And, living out that screen image, she struck a chord with audiences, while pursuing relationships with celebrities.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the unconventional woman portrayed by Babi found a soulmate in the angry young man, portrayed by the ascendant Amitabh Bachchan, rebelling against the ills of society. It was the success of Yash Chopra's Deewar (The Wall, 1975) that launched her career in popular cinema. Based on the life of a big city Muslim underworld don, Deewar became a landmark for both Bachchan and Babi.

Babi, from a feudal aristocratic family, was the daughter of Vali Mohammed Babi, administrator of the Muslim princely state of Junagadh, in Gujarat, western India. It was while Babi was studying in Ahmedabad University that she was spotted by filmmaker BR Ishara. She appeared in his Charitra (Character, 1973) opposite cricketer Salim Durrani and in Kishore Sahu's Dhuen Ki Lakeer (Trail Of Smoke, 1974). Both films flopped, and even BR Chopra's crisp thriller 36 Ghante (36 Hours, 1974) was not a popular success. Then came Deewar.

Success continued with Manmohan Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), and its title song featuring Babi became a hit. She starred in Vinod Pande's offbeat Yeh Nazdeekiyan (This Closeness, 1982) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Rang Birangee (Colourful, 1983), opposite Amol Palekar. She was to act in more than 50 films - and yet her potential was never adequately tapped.

Babi spoke frankly about her relationships with the likes of actor/model Kabir Bedi and actor Danny Denzongpa. The ups and downs of her much publicised relationship with the film-maker Mahesh Bhatt ended with her former lover making the acclaimed semi-autobiographical Arth (Meaning, 1982) - with Babi played by the late Smita Patil.

By the mid-1980s, Babi, mentally disturbed, had moved to the US and sought help from the guru UG Krishnamurthi. By 2000, reportedly suffering from schizophrenia, she was making bizarre and unfounded allegations against various people, including Bachchan and Bill Clinton, and withdrew completely from the public eye.

· Parveen Wali Mohammad Khan Babi, actor, born April 4 1954; died January 22 2005

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What was the Parveen Babi story: Celebrityhood, influential men, downward spiral, lonely end

The biography by karishma upadhyay is an empathetic account of the late actor’s journey from a luminous diva to one consumed by the demons of her mind.

Author: Karishma Upadhyay Publisher: Hachette Pages: 320 Price: Rs 599

In July 1976, a TIME magazine cover created ripples in India. Gracing it was an up-and-coming Hindi film actor, resplendent in a pearl-festooned bustier, her sleek jet-black hair framing a face that audiences in India were just beginning to recognise. It was Parveen Babi, who along with her contemporary Zeenat Aman, redefined the Hindi film heroine. Unlike the conventional goody-two-shoes leading ladies that the industry had been used to, the “westernised” Babi smoked openly, led a bohemian lifestyle, and admitted to having lovers. Being free, frank and open, the gossip press couldn’t have enough of her, and she was never far from the headlines.

To make the cover of TIME so soon into her career was a major accomplishment. The cover story on the Bombay film industry was a detailed if condescending look at one of the biggest cinema behemoths in the world. Still, for a major global magazine to take serious cognisance of “singing-dancing” Bollywood was significant.

In Karishma Upadhyay’s biography, Parveen Babi: A Life , we get the backstory of how that cover came about. Sanjay Khan and wife Zarine, amongst Babi’s first filmi friends, took her under their wing after Khan signed her on for a film opposite himself. It was Khan who took credit for the cover, saying he recommended her name to one of the editors of the weekly; soon after, in an interview to the India Today magazine, a delighted Babi said, “these things happen to me.”

There are several such delicious anecdotes in Upadhyay’s meticulously researched, smoothly-put-together volume of the life and times of Parveen Babi, who burnt bright for a short while before being consumed by the demons of her mind. The book has come at a timely juncture, when public discourse around Sushant Singh Rajput ’s death by suicide is finally able to focus on the real issue, that of the enormous, often insurmountable burden of celebrityhood. Some people can deal with the constant see-sawing of fame and failure; others, who have fragile minds to begin with, crumble under the pressure.

The preface says that the book is the result of three years of work, with over a hundred interviews. It shows in the painstaking build-up that we get, from Babi’s youthful years in Ahmedabad , to her splashy arrival in Bombay and rapid ascent to an envious position where she was on the wish list of almost every A-list producer, and the relationships that made and unmade her. Upadhyay, a Mumbai -based film journalist, navigates with ease the slippery slopes of Bollywood, and through the people that she speaks to, we get a compelling portrait of a person struggling constantly with both sunshine and shade, never quite knowing which way to go.

The men, who were major influences in her life, are all here: Danny Denzongpa, who kept up with her through her most troubled times; Kabir Bedi, who left his wife Protima to live with Babi for a tumultuous period before moving on; and Mahesh Bhatt, who also abandoned his family to move in with Babi, and then made a U-turn because he couldn’t live with her “insecurities and obsessiveness”. Details of her platonic but intense, and, ultimately, problematic relationship with new-age philosopher UG Krishnamurti, whom she met through Bhatt, are also here. She would run to him whenever she thought she needed refuge, but she also resented him telling her not to return to Bombay. Was he looking out for her, trying to shield her from the harsh media scrutiny she would invariably run into, or was he trying to control her?

There are no clear answers, but you are never left in any doubt that Babi was slowly, steadily unravelling, heading to a tragic, lonely end.

One of the main characters in Bhatt’s 1982 semi-autobiographical Arth , the jealous, possessive wife of the protagonist, was based on his troubled relationship with Babi. The actress, who had by this time already suffered a couple of breakdowns and left Bombay only to come back to start over again, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. By this time, her well-known obsession with Amitabh Bachchan , with whom she worked in a number of hit films ( Majboor , 1974; Deewaar , 1975; Amar Akbar Anthony , 1977; Shaan , 1980; Kaalia , 1981), had also reached a point of no return: those who wanted to “kill her” included Bachchan’s name.

The one thing I missed in Upadhyay’s book was her own assessment of Babi’s work, which would have given it more context. Always known for her striking looks and ability to learn her lines super fast, Babi wasn’t considered to be much of an actor, but her presence in the movies at the time she blossomed — in the ’70s and ’80s — changed Bollywood’s notion of what a leading lady could do: be full-on, unapologetically sexy and own her sexuality.

But that aside, the story of the sparkly-sad Parveen Babi is told with clarity and empathy. It left me moved.

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How the 1971 Indo-Pak war turned actress Parveen Babi’s life around

One of india's most glamorous and sensational actresses may not have been in the world of cinema, had pakistan's military dictator general yahya khan accepted 1971 pakistani parliamentary polls verdict and not arrested dissident leader mujib ur rahman or dissuaded himself from imposing martial law on east pakistan..

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The Indo-Pak war of 1971 lasted barely 13 days between December 3 to 16 but had momentous repercussions for Parveen Babi.

One of India's most glamorous and sensational actresses may not have been in the world of cinema, had Pakistan's military dictator General Yahya Khan accepted 1971 Pakistani parliamentary polls verdict and not arrested dissident leader Mujib ur Rahman or dissuaded himself from imposing martial law on East Pakistan.

Hot on their heels, Yahya Khan and his army chief Tikka Khan on December 3, 1971, launched a pre-emptive strike on eight air-fields of India from Srinagar to Barmer. Thirteen days later, they were mute witnesses to a meek surrender of Dhaka to the Indian Army and creation of a new country, Bangladesh, when Pakistan's commander Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi had to hand over his service revolver to Indian Lieutenant-General JS Aurora.

Some 2,569 kilometres away, war theatres brusquely ended love and hopes of a young girl, Parveen Babi, who had no inkling of what destiny had in store for her.

For over six months between March to October 1971, Indira wrote letters to world leaders apprising them about the situation on the Indian border. She visited Moscow and undertook a 21-day tour to Germany, France, Britain, Belgium and the USA. She tried to arouse world conscience over the merciless butchering of civilian population and savagery of General Tikka Khan in East Pakistan. Indira permitted a government in exile by Awami League near Calcutta but refrained from any formal status to it. When the opposition became more vociferous seeking recognition of Bangladesh, Indira commented in August 1971, "There are some in the country who are attempting to make political capital out of the Bangladesh issue but this is no occasion for irresponsible action, the government will take any such step (recognition of Bangladesh) only after careful consideration of all aspects of the question."

Throughout 1970-71, Pakistan had faced civil war where the country's populous eastern part was controlled by civil and defence personnel from the western region of the country who hated Bangla language, customs and heritage. Awami League's Sheikh Mujib ur Rahman won 169 out of 313 parliamentary seats in Pakistan but was denied the office of prime minister. Independent researchers think that between 3,00,000 and 5,00,000 died. The Bangladesh government puts the figure at three million. Many academics state that the first time rape was consciously applied as a weapon of war was during the Bangladesh War of Independence. As per one estimate, over 3,00,000 Bengali-speaking women were raped.

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Parveen Babi Age, Death, Height, Boyfriend, Husband, Family, Biography & More

Some lesser known facts about parveen babi.

• She was born in the family of the Pathans of Gujarat who were the Nawabs of Junagarh and belonged to Babi tribe of Pashtuns.
• She was born after 14 years of her parents’ marriage and was the only child of her parents.

Parveen Babi’s Old Picture

• Some of her popular Hindi film songs are “Teri jheel se gehri aankhon mein” from ‘Dhuen Ki Lakeer’ (1974), “Humko tumse ho gaaya hai pyaar” from ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ (1977), “Jawani jaaneman haseen dilruba” & “Raat baki baat baki” from ‘Namak Halaal’ (1982), and “Angrezi mein kehte hai ke I love you” ‘Khuddaar’ (1982).

• Reportedly, when the news of Amitabh dating Parveen came in the eyes of media, Amitabh left her to avoid any sort of troubles in his married life. In an interview, Parveen said,

Amitabh Bachchan is a super international gangster. He is after my life. His goons kidnapped me and I was kept on an island where they performed a surgery on me and planted a transmitter or chip right under my ear.

• After she parted with Amitabh, she started dating the Bollywood actor, Danny Denzongpa in the 70s. The couple dated for almost four years, and even after their breakup they shared a cordial relationship. In an interview, Danny Denzongpa talked about his relationship with Parveen, he said,

We were two young kids and we lived together for four years. That was big news those days. We had a wonderful time, but later we grew apart and parted on a good note. We remained friends.” Parveen Babi and Danny Denzongpa

• Parveen used to live in the same building as Danny and even after their breakup, she used to visit Danny’s house. Danny shared an incident of Parveen in an interview, he said,

Parveen would keep inviting me for dinner. I had a new girlfriend (actor Kim) those days. She was wary of Parveen. Also, if your ex walks into the house anytime like a mother hen, it would be difficult for any girl to accept. I would pick up Kim from the sets after pack up and reach home only to find Parveen in my bedroom, watching a movie on the VCR. I asked Parveen not to do it. But she’d say, ‘We don’t have anything between us, we are friends.”

• Danny shared in an interview that he started feeling something abnormal in Parveen’s, he said,

I remember the first time I noticed something abnormal about Parveen. I had been for dinner at her place. There were silver conches on the table. When I began blowing one, she got frightened. That’s when Mahesh said, ‘She gets easily frightened these days and is turning into a recluse’. A few days later Mahesh confided again “Parveen’s unwell. She cares for you and you must come over and give her support. Whenever Parveen needed me, I was always there.”

• Later, Parveen cut off all the ties with Danny after an incident. In an interview, Danny shared that incident, he said,

One day she happened to read an interview, where Amitji had mentioned that I was a good friend of his. That was it. When I went to meet her the next time, she looked at me through the keyhole and refused to let me in, calling me his agent. She was frightened of me too.”

• After her breakup with Danny, she started dating another Bollywood actor, Kabir Bedi . They dated for a few months, but due to their professional commitments, they parted their ways in 1977. In an interview, Parveen talked about Kabir, she said,

He’s getting opportunities in the West and I don’t expect him to kick them down for my sake. I set him free since this is the time when he has to make the best of his career without any hassles. It’s not sacrifice on my part, I am not a martyr, it’s just more resignation to a situation I can’t control.” Pictures of Kabir Bedi and Parveen Babi

An Old Picture of Parveen Babi

• Post her breakup with Kabir Bedi, she met the famous Bollywood director, Mahesh Bhatt . Parveen and Mahesh Bhatt’s love story is one of the famous love stories in Bollywood.
• Even though Mahesh was married and had one daughter at that time, he fell in love with Parveen.
• Soon, he started observing weird behaviour of Parveen which was due to Schizophrenia. In an interview, he said,

Once she threw open the door of the moving car, saying the bomb would burst and ran out on the road with me trying to hold her. People thought ‘Parveen Babi’ was having a fight with her boyfriend. Somehow, I huddled her into a taxi and brought her home.” [22] India.com jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_149309_1_22').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_149309_1_22', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });

• Mahesh shared an incident of Parveen, he said in an interview,

In 1979, Parveen was dressed in film costume and sat curled up in the corner between the wall and the bed. Her gait was beast-like. She had a kitchen knife in her hand. ‘What are you doing?’ I asked. She said, ‘Shhsssh…! Don’t talk! This room is bugged (installed with a spying device). They’re trying to kill me; they’re going to drop a chandelier on me.’ She held my hand and led me outside. I saw her mother look helplessly at me. Her gaze revealed that this episode had happened before; it was not the first time.”

• Parveen’s weird behaviour continued, and Mahesh decided to take her to one of his spiritual gurus, U. G. Krishnamurti in Bengaluru.
• In October 1979, he left Parveen with his spiritual guru for her treatment and returned to Mumbai to sort out his married life.
• In 1979, Parveen returned to Mahesh in Mumbai. In an interview, Mahesh shared an incident after which he broke up with Parveen in 1980, he said,

Parveen knew I was in touch with UG, who was against her returning to films. He was the voice of sanity, which she didn’t want to hear. So she played the last card,” as they were about to make love, she asked him to choose between her or the philosopher. [23] India Today jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_149309_1_23').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_149309_1_23', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });

U. G. Krishnamurti With Parveen Babi

• In 1982, Mahesh Bhatt directed a film based on Parveen’s life, ‘Arth.’

Parveen Babi Featured at Time Magazine’s Cover

Parveen Babi Featured on a Magazine Cover

• She went on a spiritual trip with U. G. Krishnamurti and her friend, Valentine on 30 July 1983.
• She wrote her autobiography in 1984 and left the manuscript with U. G., but it was never published.
• She had put a lot of weight in 1989, her secretary, Ved Sharma’s son, shared a few incidents of his meeting with Parveen Babi. In an interview he said,

She had a homely side too. At home she’d be simply dressed in jeans. She’d attend our birthday parties. She’d give us an envelope (of cash) so that we could buy whatever we wished. For groceries and essentials, she’d slip the money through the door and collect the milk and eggs once the man had left.” Once she had stepped out to buy something when a bus passed close to her near the Hare Rama Hare Krishna temple in Juhu. She believed that someone had sent the bus to kill her.” Parveen Babi After Gaining Weight

• She used to believe that everyone is planning to kill her. Her secretary, Ved Sharma’s son, Lalit said,

She didn’t trust the doctors. Anyone who suggested she should see a psychiatrist became her enemy, even her mother!” “She even believed that the January 26, 2001 earthquake in Kutch was planned because she had a water tank on the terrace and ‘they’ wanted to kill her by crushing it. If her car didn’t work, she’d believe that someone had deliberately tampered with it. Once I went to her kitchen to keep my plate, I was appalled at the filth and stink. For someone who was once a cleanliness freak, this was shocking. Her beautiful terrace flat was a mess. It had heaps and heaps of newspapers which were categorised in sections like politics, health, entertainment etc.”

A Black and White Photo of Parveen Babi

• Her mental health was so deteriorated that she assigned her property shares to her dead relatives in the will.

Parveen Babi and Zeenat Aman

• She used to record every phone call and whatever she talked in the last four years of her life. A few collections of her notepads are kept in the office of the State Administrator General of the Government of Maharashtra.
• In her last Christmas party, she hosted a Christmas dinner at her Juhu flat and one of her guests was Reverend Avinash Rangayya (the pastor of All Saints Anglican Church, Church of North India at Malabar Hill).
• In an interview in 1998, she talked about converting to Christianity, she said,

I was born a Muslim and later, I converted to Christianity. But I have never done things I didn’t believe. Even when I was a Muslim, I didn’t understand why it made me a more spiritual entity, if I did not eat pork. I always felt that the essence of spirituality lies in being a good human and following good, positive principles. The Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant at the Taj, those days, was quite famous for pork delicacies and every time I got a break from shooting, I would rush off to the Golden Dragon. Whenever my friends questioned me about my eating pork, I would say that it was more important for me to be a human being than a racist.”

• While talking to a reporter in 1988, she said,

Today, the majority of the industry has cut ties with me because of one man… Anyway, I don’t feel let down. On the contrary, I feel it’s their loss. The film industry is wonderful in the beginning, when you are in your youth. But then, it doesn’t let you grow in any other direction. The reason I didn’t attempt to make a comeback in the industry, is firstly because this man is still there and secondly, over the years, I have discov­ered a whole new world outside. Writing, philosophy, painting, organized thinking, great and classic litera­ture… There is just one life and so much to achieve.”

A Picture of Parveen Babi

• On 22 January 2005, her neighbours noticed that for two days, she had not collected newspapers and milk bottles from her doorstep. After the police entered her flat, they found that her body was lying on the bed and a wheel-chair was lying beside her. Also, some old newspapers, medicines, and alcohol bottles were there and spread like a mess on the floor.
• It was found that she had gangrene on her left foot because of her diabetic condition, and due to which, she might be not able to walk properly. As per the report by Cooper Hospital, there were no traces of food in her stomach, but some alcohol was found in her body. They also mentioned that it might be possible that she had not consumed food for more than three days, and as a consequence, starved to death.
• Her last desire was to perform her last rites according to Christian rituals. But her relatives, who claimed her body, performed the Islamic rites, and her body was buried at Juhu Muslim cemetery in Santacruz, Mumbai along with other Bollywood celebrities, such as Mohammed Rafi , Madhubala ,  Sahir Ludhianvi , Talat Mahmood, and Naushad Ali. Due to lack of space, their graves were relocated after five years.
• Mahesh Bhatt  also claimed her body, he said,

I thought if none of her relatives came forward I’d bury her.”

• On her demise, Amitabh Bachchan said,

She brought in a new, bohemian kind of leading lady to the screen. We’d work on all these films and go our own way. But because we belonged to the same social circle we’d visit each other and listen to music. She was a very fun loving, light-hearted person. Always full of joie de vivre!”

• A film was released on her life in 2007 with the title, ‘Parveen Bobby.’
• The popular Indian fashion designer, Manish Malhotra praised her dressing sense, he said,

Parveen Babi brought minimalism into fashion. She was always impeccable, not overdoing it even once.”

• Here is the video describing the journey of her life.

References/Sources: [ + ]

• entertainment
• "Parveen Babi was much more than who she dated," recounts Zeenat Aman on the birth anniversary of the actress

"Parveen Babi was much more than who she dated," recounts Zeenat Aman on the birth anniversary of the actress

Neetu Kapoor confesses having crush on Rishi Kapoor's uncle, Shashi Kapoor; shares hilarious incident about Zeenat Aman's rare visit to a temple

A new biography attempts to combat the stigma that enshrouded Parveen Babi

IN EARLY 1984, the actress Parveen Babi announced her retirement from Bollywood in blazingly public fashion: she wrote about it in a cover story for the Illustrated Weekly of India . Titled “The Confessions of Parveen Babi,” the essay was diaristic and occasionally disturbing in its honesty. “Have you ever wondered what it is like to function in life, distrusting everything and everybody?” the actress, then 34 years old, wrote. “Slowly, one by one, I lost trust in everybody and everything around me. We trust most of the things and people around us without questioning. We trust the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe.”

Diagnosed with schizophrenia in the late 1970s, Babi had experienced her latest breakdown just months before the article’s publication. She was nearing the end of a noteworthy career in Bollywood. In her ten years in the industry, Babi projected a new, assuredly “ progressive” image for women in popular Hindi cinema in films such as Majboor and Deewaar . Along with her contemporary Zeenat Aman, Babi introduced audiences to a bohemian heroine who drank and smoked, who wore bell bottoms and skirts with thigh-high gashes, who brandished her sexuality without apology. Babi scaled international heights too, gracing a 1976 cover of the European edition of Time magazine as the avatar of “Asia’s Frenetic Film Scene.”

But once talk of Babi’s mental illness began circulating in Mumbai, industry figures began to see her as a liability. Many were cruel about her condition. “I think Parveen Babi is a hoax,” the filmmaker Prakash Mehra, who directed her in the 1982 film Namak Halaal , told the magazine Stardust in June 1980. “Her illness is [a] hoax. She is a liar and a cheat.”

In her cover story for the Illustrated Weekly of India , Babi would write that a voice in her head told her to leave Mumbai, to leave India entirely. Following her retirement, she settled in the US city of Corte Madera, just south of San Francisco. Babi spent the next few years severing ties with those close to her and dodging the limelight, living in New York and Houston, where she had skirmishes with law enforcement. Upon moving back to Mumbai, in 1989, she made no films, eking out a cloistered existence in her flat in Juhu. She would emerge in the public sporadically. In the early 2000s, she aired accusations against the actor Sanjay Dutt, claiming she had substantial evidence implicating him in the 1993 Mumbai bombings.

Parveen Babi was 'crying' after Jaya Bachchan replaced her in 'Silsila': Ranjeet

V eteran actor Ranjeet recently disclosed that Parveen Babi was initially selected to star alongside Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan in the 1981 film 'Silsila', but was later replaced by Jaya Bachchan. In an interview, Ranjeet spoke about his close relationship with Babi and her disappointment at not being cast in the famous film.

Ranjeet discussed his relationship with Parveen Babi in an interview with ANI, stating that she was disappointed not to be included in the well-known film. He said, "She (Parveen Babi) was my dear friend, she was all alone. She was a beautiful lady. Always smiling, and we used to call her ' fawada ' (shovel) because of her teeth. Once she was very upset and she was crying. I asked her ' Kya hua Parveen? (What happened Parveen?)' We were in Kashmir. I don't mind quoting because it's a fact. A film was made, 'Silsila', and Parveen Babi was the original heroine, but she was asked to leave. And because of a gimmick controversy, they cast Rekha and Jaya Bhaduri in the film, otherwise it was Parveen and Rekha."

Parveen Babi passed away in January 2005. Ranjeet also mentioned his friendship with the late actor Sanjeev Kumar and shared their regular meetings. Further, he commented on the loss of many iconic actors who played a significant role in shaping Hindi cinema.

Ranjeet, also known as Gopal Bedi, has been part of numerous films and TV shows, and is one of the most popular villains in the film industry.

Sort by Year - Latest Movies and TV Shows With Parveen Babi

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Karishmaa

Action | Announced

The film was based on reincarnation.

Director: Sunil Sikand | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan , Sharmila Tagore , Shashi Kapoor , Danny Denzongpa

2. Iraada (1991)

127 min | Drama

Wealthy Mr. Nath is out to tarnish the image of his niece Kiran, who runs a construction business. His intentions are to usurp her business. Ashok, who works with Kiran stands by her and ... See full summary  »

Director: Indrajit Singh | Stars: Shatrughan Sinha , Parveen Babi , Moon Moon Sen , Suresh Oberoi

3. Akarshan (1988)

Priya is an actress whose life gets saved by the hero played by Akbar Khan while shooting. She then falls in love with him. however, this does not auger well with Priya's Didi (elder sister... See full summary  »

Director: Tanvir Ahmed | Stars: Akbar Khan , Sonu Walia , Girish Karnad , Rohini Hattangadi

4. Avinash (1986)

171 min | Action, Crime, Drama

A dealer of stolen goods and a singer, Avinash finds his life turned upside down when goons break into his house, assault his fiancée, Dr. Sapna, and his brother, Sumit; kill his mother; ... See full summary  »

Director: Umesh Mehra | Stars: Mithun Chakraborty , Poonam Dhillon , Bindiya Goswami , Parveen Babi

5. Ricky (1986)

Drama, Family

A young man's struggle with his fragmented family and society.

Director: Ashok | Stars: Jaymala Adarsh , Parveen Babi , Rakesh Bedi , Birbal

6. Telephone (1985)

116 min | Mystery, Thriller

Suresh is a wealthy businessman and works with is best friend and business partner Dinesh when he finds that Dinesh is cheating him he forces him to leave the organization,Dinesh swears to ... See full summary  »

Directors: Shyam Ramsay , Tulsi Ramsay | Stars: Shatrughan Sinha , Parveen Babi , Marc Zuber , Deepti Naval

7. Sitamgar (1985)

150 min | Action

Barely in his teens, Sonu works as a servant in the palatial house of Mr. Nath, his wife and step-daughter, Nisha. One day while ironing Nisha's birthday dress, Sonu accidentally burns it, ... See full summary  »

Director: Raj N. Sippy | Stars: Dharmendra , Parveen Babi , Rishi Kapoor , Poonam Dhillon

8. Ameer Aadmi Ghareeb Aadmi (1985)

Subhash Gaekwad is a worker employed in a mill run by Lal and partners. Lal does not pay his workers well, and they decide to go on an indefinite strike. Lal does not really care, and soon ... See full summary  »

Director: Amjad Khan | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan , Zeenat Aman , Rabia Amin , Parveen Babi

9. Karmyudh (1985)

130 min | Action

An honest and diligent police officer is killed and her wife, Geeta, ensures that their son Vijay avenges his death. Embroiled in a web of treachery and politics, can Vijay accomplish his goal.

Director: Swaroop Kumar | Stars: Mithun Chakraborty , Anita Raj , Pran Sikand , Amrish Puri

10. Bond 303 (1985)

Action, Adventure, Crime

Terrorist attacks take place all over the world by unknown rockets so an Indian agent, Bond 303, is called to solve the mystery behind it.

Director: Ravi Tandon | Stars: Jeetendra , Parveen Babi , Tom Alter , Vikas Anand

11. Teri Baahon Mein (1984)

120 min | Romance

Teri bahon mein amar saroj

Director: Umesh Mehra | Stars: Mohnish Behl , Ayesha Shroff , Navin Nischol , Parikshit Sahni

12. Bad Aur Badnaam (1984)

135 min | Family, Thriller

James and Ashwinikumar are secret agents from Ringania and India fighting to stop the villains hell bent on world domination.

Director: Feroz Chinoy | Stars: Sanjeev Kumar , Parveen Babi , Shatrughan Sinha , Anita Raj

13. Kanoon Meri Mutthi Mein (1984)

Geetas brother Vikram was murdered by dacoits on Raksha Bandhan day and so were his parents. Geeta turned a dacoit as Jwala to have her revenge. Inspector Sagar was assigned the task of ... See full summary  »

Directors: Chand , K. Prasad | Stars: Raj Babbar , Parveen Babi , Smita Patil , Marc Zuber

14. Razia Sultan (1983)

176 min | Biography, Drama, History

An account of the reign of Indian empress Razia Sultan and her love for her slave Jamaluddin Yakut.

Director: Kamal Amrohi | Stars: Hema Malini , Dharmendra , Parveen Babi , Pradeep Kumar

15. Mahaan (1983)

181 min | Action, Comedy, Drama

A lawyer goes into hiding after being falsely accused of committing a crime while his wife gives birth to twins. One of the twins is separated at birth, while the other twin grows up to become an inspector who is on his father's trail.

Director: S. Ramanathan | Stars: Ashok Kumar , Waheeda Rehman , Amitabh Bachchan , Zeenat Aman

16. Durdesh (1983)

Not Rated | 143 min | Action, Crime, Drama

Raju is a second-generation American-Indian who lives with his mother, Shobha, and resents his father for having an illicit affair with a married East Indian woman, Rita, as well as his ... See full summary  »

Director: Ambrish Sangal | Stars: Shashi Kapoor , Sharmila Tagore , Parveen Babi , Raj Babbar

17. Rang Birangi (1983)

180 min | Comedy

Sparkling comedy about a meddling friend whose attempt to rekindle the spark in his friend's relationship with his wife of seven years leads to complications to their lives, and to the ... See full summary  »

Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee | Stars: Amol Palekar , Parveen Babi , Farooq Shaikh , Deepti Naval

18. Arpan (1983)

144 min | Drama, Romance

The Verma family consists of Mrs. Verma, the mother; Anil, the son; and a daughter named Vinnie. Anil loves Shobha, and hopes to marry her someday. While Vinnie loves Rakesh and also hopes ... See full summary  »

Director: J. Om Prakash | Stars: Jeetendra , Reena Roy , Parveen Babi , Raj Babbar

19. Chor Police (1983)

Crime, Action, Drama

Inspector Sunil Rana (Shatrughan Sinha) has been assigned the case of triple-homicide of the Sinha family, namely Mr. Sinha (Ashok Kumar); his son Inspector Rohan (Vinod Mehra), and Rohan's... See full summary  »

Director: Amjad Khan | Stars: Shatrughan Sinha , Parveen Babi , Shakti Kapoor , Amjad Khan

20. Jaani Dost (1983)

Not Rated | 153 min | Action, Comedy, Drama

Two childhood friends face obstacles and challenges after they confront gangsters and each other.

Director: K. Raghavendra Rao | Stars: Dharmendra , Jeetendra , Parveen Babi , Sridevi

21. Mangal Pandey (1983)

Not Rated | 136 min | Action, Crime, Drama

Abused by his step-mother; Rajmer, Jaipur-based young Mangal faces more trauma when his father Havaldar Rajnath Pandey is shot dead by Daku Lal Singh. He then gets separated from his sister... See full summary  »

Director: Harmesh Malhotra | Stars: Rajeet Sood , Harbans Darshan M. Arora , Tyrone Aviet , Parveen Babi

22. Khud-Daar (1982)

169 min | Action, Drama

Hari R. Srivastav lives a middle-class life in rural India with two step-brothers, Govind and Rajesh. Circumstances compel him to get married to Seema, who dislikes Govind and Rajesh. When ... See full summary  »

Director: Ravi Tandon | Stars: Sanjeev Kumar , Amitabh Bachchan , Vinod Mehra , Tanuja Samarth

23. Namak Halaal (1982)

171 min | Action, Comedy, Drama

Brought up by his grandfather, Arjun Singh moves to the city in search of a new job and life. While in the city he meets Bhairon, who helps him find a job as a singer in a 5-star hotel owned by Raja.

Director: Prakash Mehra | Stars: Waheeda Rehman , Shashi Kapoor , Amitabh Bachchan , Smita Patil

Votes: 2,811

24. Desh Premee (1982)

165 min | Action, Comedy, Drama

Master Dinanath is an ex-freedom fighter. When he gets Thakur Pratap Singh arrested for arms smuggling, he has Master's wife Bharati and young daughter Priti kidnapped and also turns his ... See full summary  »

Director: Manmohan Desai | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan , Hema Malini , Navin Nischol , Parveen Babi

25. Ashanti (1982)

Honest and dedicated Police Inspector Kumar Chandra Singh intercepts a bank robbery, and is in the process of arresting the bank robbers, when he himself becomes a suspect, and is ... See full summary  »

Director: Umesh Mehra | Stars: Rajesh Khanna , Zeenat Aman , Parveen Babi , Shabana Azmi

26. Taaqat (1982)

Action, Drama

Devi and Shakti Singh gets married but Ambica loves him secretly. Devi kill husband's step-brother and his friends as they tries to molest her and runs away and comes under protection of Dacoit Bhawani Singh where she gives birth to a boy.

Director: Narendra Bedi | Stars: Vinod Khanna , Parveen Babi , Rakhee Gulzar , Pran Sikand

27. Yeh Nazdeekiyan (1982)

Drama, Romance

Sunil Verma is the head of an advertising agency, and lives with a middle-class life with his wife, Shobna. Although Sunil gets to meet many beautiful women during the course of his ... See full summary  »

Director: Vinod Pande | Stars: Marc Zuber , Shabana Azmi , Parveen Babi , Mala Jaggi

28. Dil... Akhir Dil Hai (1982)

216 min | Drama

In Mumbai, Kusam and Vimal's arranged marriage fails as he only sees her as a mother. After their fathers' death, Vimal loves another woman. Kusam attempts divorce despite India's strict laws.

Director: Esmayeel Shroff | Stars: Rakhee Gulzar , Parveen Babi , Naseeruddin Shah , Jalal Agha

29. Kaalia (1981)

Not Rated | 157 min | Action, Drama

Jailed for robbing his brother's unscrupulous employer, a simpleton has a transformation while in prison, emerging with a violent mission for revenge.

Director: Tinnu Anand | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan , Asha Parekh , Parveen Babi , Amjad Khan

Votes: 1,692

30. Kranti (1981)

187 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

The story of India's freedom struggle between the years 1825 and 1875.

Director: Manoj Kumar | Stars: Dilip Kumar , Manoj Kumar , Shashi Kapoor , Hema Malini

Votes: 1,068

31. Meri Aawaz Suno (1981)

Not Rated | 153 min | Action, Crime, Drama

Sushil Kumar lives a middle-class lifestyle in Riksapur in the District of Bhagalpur, located in a country called Mundustan, along with his widowed mom, Kamini, an unmarried sister, Shobha,... See full summary  »

Director: S.V. Rajendra Singh Babu | Stars: Jeetendra , Hema Malini , Om Shivpuri , Ranjeet Bedi

32. Ladies Tailor (1981)

148 min | Comedy

Mehboob works as a ladies tailor in Mumbai's high profile tailoring shop stitching clothes for many film actress for their films.He isn't happy top be away from his family and decides to ... See full summary  »

Director: Khalid Akhtar | Stars: Sanjeev Kumar , Reena Roy , Amjad Khan , Deven Verma

33. Ahista Ahista (1981)

Not Rated | 141 min | Musical, Romance

Courtesan Madame Subbalaxmi heads a household where men are not born, but are welcome. Women are not welcome, but their birth is. Subbalaxmi is thrilled when her pet protege, Sangeeta, ... See full summary  »

Director: Esmayeel Shroff | Stars: Parveen Babi , Suresh Chatwal , Aruna Irani , Shashikala Jawalkar

34. Khoon Aur Paani (1981)

Not Rated | 141 min | Action, Drama

Singh is a farmer and lives a poor lifestyle along with his wife, and two sons, Ram and Laksman. The region is drought stricken, while in contrast there is plenty of water being pumped to ... See full summary  »

Director: Chand | Stars: Feroz Khan , Jeetendra , Rekha , Parveen Babi

35. Raksha (1981)

Not Rated | 127 min | Action, Drama

With India ready to enter into the Atomic Age, several international gangsters get together to steal the secret for the benefit of other nations. This results in a bomb being planted on an ... See full summary  »

Director: Ravikant Nagaich | Stars: Jeetendra , Parveen Babi , Moushumi Chatterjee , Praveen Kumar Sobti

36. The Burning Train (1980)

142 min | Action, Thriller

A dedicated railway employee's plan to introduce an express train result in sabotage.

Director: Ravi Chopra | Stars: Dharmendra , Vinod Khanna , Jeetendra , Vinod Mehra

Votes: 1,760

37. Shaan (1980)

Not Rated | 181 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

Two brothers go after the international mafia kingpin who murdered their cop brother. They are later joined by another man who wants revenge against the gangster.

Director: Ramesh Sippy | Stars: Sunil Dutt , Shashi Kapoor , Amitabh Bachchan , Shatrughan Sinha

Votes: 3,056

38. Abdullah (1980)

136 min | Action, Drama, Romance

Abdullah is a devout Muslim who lives in a small hut the middle of a desert in Persia, and looks after a well so that it provides water to thirsty travelers. One day a friend, Ameer, ... See full summary  »

Director: Sanjay Khan | Stars: Raj Kapoor , Sanjay Khan , Sanjeev Kumar , Zeenat Aman

39. Do Aur Do Paanch (1980)

Not Rated | 132 min | Action, Comedy, Drama

Two rival burglars end up at the same school with the intent of abducting a rich man's son for a large ransom.

Director: Rakesh Kumar | Stars: Shashi Kapoor , Amitabh Bachchan , Hema Malini , Parveen Babi

Votes: 1,082

40. Ek Do Teen Chaar (1980 TV Movie)

Director: Vijay Anand | Stars: Dev Anand , Shashi Kapoor , Dharmendra , Hema Malini

41. Gunehgaar (1980)

Police inspector Madan Singh is married to Sushma, whose brother Arun is a violent leader of mill workers. Arun is shot dead by Madan when the former tries to kill the mill owner. Sushma leaves him.

Director: Rahul Rawail | Stars: Rishi Kapoor , Parveen Babi , Rajendra Kumar Tuli , Syed Jari Ali

42. Ek Gunah Aur Sahi (1980)

Action, Crime, Thriller

Director: Yogi Kathuria | Stars: Sunil Dutt , Parveen Babi , Gulshan Arora , Brahmachari

43. Dam Maro Dam (1980)

Director: Vijay Bhatt | Stars: Jalal Agha , Vijay Arora , Parveen Babi , Arpana Choudhary

44. Kaala Patthar (1979)

Not Rated | 176 min | Action, Drama, History

Inspired by a true mining tragedy the film is about people from all walks of life showing courage and character to fight the forces of nature.

Director: Yash Chopra | Stars: Amitabh Bachchan , Shashi Kapoor , Shatrughan Sinha , Rakhee Gulzar

Votes: 2,756

45. Suhaag (1979)

Not Rated | 164 min | Action, Comedy, Drama

Two brothers gets separated at the time of their birth. But when they reunite as adults, challenges welcome them.

Director: Manmohan Desai | Stars: Shashi Kapoor , Amitabh Bachchan , Rekha , Parveen Babi

Votes: 1,232

46. Majnoon (1979)

Director: Kamal Amrohi | Stars: Rajesh Khanna , Rakhee Gulzar , Pradeep Kumar , Parveen Babi

47. Pati Patni Aur Woh (1978)

141 min | Comedy, Romance

Adam & Eve live a worry-free life in paradise. They are instructed not to eat an apple. One day they cannot resist the temptation, and both take a bite out of it. Nature takes offense and ... See full summary  »

Director: B.R. Chopra | Stars: Sanjeev Kumar , Vidya Sinha , Ranjeeta Kaur , Govardhan Asrani

48. Aahuti (1978)

135 min | Action, Drama

Hiralal's gang now seeks revenge against the family of devout Harnam Prasad which comprises his wife; Kamini Kaushal as Kaushalya Prasad and three sons. They sabotage the picnic bus of his ... See full summary  »

Director: Ashok | Stars: Rajendra Kumar Tuli , Shashi Kapoor , Rakesh Roshan , Parveen Babi

49. Chamatkaar (1978)

Director: Pramod Chakravorty | Stars: Rajesh Khanna , Parveen Babi , Shoma Anand , Govardhan Asrani

50. Arena (1975– ) Episode: Cinema: A report from Bombay (1978)

Documentary

Director: David Cheshire | Stars: Parveen Babi , Shyam Benegal , Basu Chatterjee , Shashi Kapoor

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Home » Bollywood News

Ranjeet Spills The Beans On The Yesteryear Bollywood Parties, Says “Parveen Babi Would Make Drinks…”

Ranjeet's house in juhu was the center of parties, and he hosted them for his friends from the film industry..

Veteran Bollywood actor Ranjeet was a popular face in Hindi cinemas during the 70s and 80s. He mostly appeared in roles with negative shades. Besides working in Bollywood, he has also worked in several Punjabi movies. The actor was often showcased as an alcoholic on-screen owing to his villainous roles, but in reality, the veteran actor never had a drop of alcohol despite hosting several parties at his place. However, he recently revealed how the then-leading actors like Rajesh Khanna, Parveen Babi, and others partied back then.

He was born as Gopal Singh Bedi near Amritsar and has reportedly played villain in over 200 Hindi movies. He has appeared in films like Dharam Veer, Nagin, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Suhaag, The Burning Train, Namak Halaal, and more. He has also worked in multiple television shows throughout his career. The senior actor is still passionate about his job and seldom appears in movies, including 2019’s Housefull 4.

Ranjeet’s house in Juhu was the center of parties, and he hosted them for his friends from the film industry. Speaking to ANI, he said, “Reena Roy would make paranthas, Parveen Babi would make drinks, Moushumi Chatterjee would make fish, Neetu Kapoor would make bhindi, it used to be that kind of atmosphere.” He added how the big stars of that time, like Dharmendra , Sunil Dutt, Raaj Kumar, Sanjay Khan, and Shatrughan Sinha, would be partying together at his place.

Ranjeet added, “People like Rajesh Khanna would drink one-two bottles in a night… I was blessed. I believed that the house that welcomes guests is blessed by god. I had enough space so I would entertain people. There was enough staff also.”

Ranjeet also mentioned how he would work multiple shifts simultaneously regardless of the late-night parties. He also revealed how the heroes would wake up late, around 2 pm, and reach the sets even though they had a 10 am shift. This allowed the Suhaag actor to take on multiple jobs at the same time.

For more such exciting tidbits, stay tuned to Koimoi!

Must Read:   Akshay Kumar Confirms Hera Pheri 3 & Two Other Films Rooting For Comedy Comebacks As He Slyly Digs Woke Culture, “Bada Ajeeb Lagta Hai Jab Log Strict…”

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