Parveen Babi had her breakthrough starring as a prostitute, Anita, in 'Deewaar' (1975). The film helped establish Parveen Babi as a leading lady. Parveen Babi made her film debut with the film 'Charitra' (1973), opposite cricketer Salim Durrani.
Today is the 70th birth anniversary of one of the most beautiful and influential actresses in India - Parveen Babi. Born in 1954 in Gujarat, Parveen Babi was one of the best actresses Indian cinema has ever produced. Her influence was such that she, to this date, two decades after her death, remains an active part of many headlines - for her superhit films or for her fashion sense that transcended generations.
Parveen Babi made her film debut with the film 'Charitra' (1973), opposite cricketer Salim Durrani. The film was a flop, but Parveen Babi was noticed by filmmakers. She had her breakthrough starring as a prostitute, Anita, in 'Deewaar' (1975). The film helped establish Parveen Babi as a leading lady.
In her career, Parveen Babi worked in many blockbuster films with superstars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Feroz Khan, Dharmendra, and Vinod Khanna. She starred opposite superstar Amitabh Bachchan in eight films and all of them were hits or super-hits.
However, despite immense success in her career, Parveen Babi's personal life was always mired in controversies. Parveen Babi was in a relationship with Danny Denzongpa for four years after which she dated Kabir Bedi, and then Mahesh Bhatt.
Parveen Babi lived alone in her Mumbai home and though she was born a Muslim, she later converted to Christianity during the late 1990s.
In 1983, Parveen Babi left India and travelled to many countries on a spiritual journey. When she returned to Mumbai in 1989, she was rumoured to have been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. She denied the claims and accused it as a conspiracy by the film industry and the media to tarnish her image. This made Parveen Babi reclusive. She also filed a petition in court accusing Amitabh Bachchan, Bill Clinton, Robert Redford, Prince Charles, Al Gore, the US government, the British government, the French government, the BJP government, the Roman Catholic Church, the CIA, CBI, KGB, and Mossad of conspiring to kill her.
The petition was dismissed for lack of evidence which turned out to be scribblings on a notepad.
In 1984, Parveen Babi was suspected at John F. Kennedy International Airport in the US after she struggled to submit her identification papers. She was then kept in a general ward with 30 other mentally disturbed patients.
In an interview with a film magazine in 1989, Parveen Babi made an explosive statement about Amitabh Bachchan. She was quoted as saying, "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 surgery on me and planted one transmitter/chip/electronic bug right under my ear."
Due to her illness, Parveen Babi, in her later years, stayed away from the film industry and started spending time in solitude. On January 22, 2005, Parveen Babi was found dead in her Mumbai home. A post-mortem was conducted at Cooper Hospital which showed that she had no traces of food in her stomach, only some alcohol, possibly from medication. Police concluded that Parveen Babi, once a Bollywood superstar, starved to death in her flat and succumbed to total organ failure and diabetes.
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 "Meet actress whose body was found 3 days after death, was locked in mental asylum, accused Big B of kidnapping..")
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