Remembering Parveen Babi 1949-2005

Born: 4 April 1949, Junagadh

Died: 20 January 2005, Juhu, Mumbai

Parveen Babi is till date remembered as Big B's leading lady and for her many glamorous avatars in 1970s and early 80s in blockbusters like Deewar, Namak Halaal, Amar Akbar Anthony and Shaan.

Parveen Babi was born on 4^th April 1949 in Junagadh, Gujarat into a Muslim family. She did her schooling from Mount Carmel High School in Ahmedabad and then did M.A (Eng) from St. Xavier's College, Ahmedabad. Her ancestors were Pathans of Gujarat and belonged to the Babi Dynasty.

Parveen, who was born 14 years after the marriage of her parents, lost her father at the tender age of 10.

Parveen began working as a model in 1972 and then made her Bollywood debut with Charitra in 1973 opposite cricketer Salim Durani. Though the movie was a box office disaster, Parveen Babi got noticed and went on to sign many movies. Her first hit was Majboor very next year opposite Amitabh Bachchan. She along with Zeenat Aman were known as pioneers of changing the image of Indian heroine. Parveen Babi was seen more as a fashion icon than a serious actor. Parveen Babi replaced the image of saree clad, conventional Indian actress with a glamorous and self-dependent woman. Her on screen persona never shied away from a live-in-relationship with men, consuming alcohol openly, both of which were a taboo in those times.

She was the first Bollywood actress to appear on the cover of Time magazine in July 1976.

Parveen Babi was considered to be one of the most successful actresses of her time, along with Hema Malini, Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Jaya Bhaduri, Reena Roy and Raakhee.

She worked with Amitabh Bachchan in eight films and all of them were hits Deewar, Amar Akbar Anthony, Majboor to name a few.

Parveen Babi also worked with Shashi Kapoor (Suhaag, Kaala Patthar, Namak Halaal), Feroz Khan (Kala Sona) and Dharmendra (Jaani Dost)

But towards the end of her filmy career she was seen in offbeat films like Yeh Nazdeekiyan (1982) and Dil... Akhir Dil Hai (1982).

Parveen Babi was often compared with her contemporary Zeenat Aman due to their common image of being sex-symbols. She had also worked with Zeenat in Mahaan and Ashanti (1982). In Manoj Kumar's super hit Kranti, she stole the show from film's leading Hema Malini.

Parveen never got married but was in relation with many married men including director Mahesh Bhatt, Kabir Bedi and Danny Denzongpa. Mahesh Bhatt also wrote and directed Arth (1982), which was a semi-autobiographical film about his relationship with Parveen Babi. Later he also made Woh Lamhe.

Parveen Babi disappeared from the movie scene without informing anyone about her whereabouts and there were rumours in the industry that she might have been kidnapped by the underworld. She travelled to many to many countries for a spiritual journey with U. G. Krishnamurti and her friend Valentine and spent most of the time in California. On April 7, 1984, she was caught at John F. Kennedy International Airport after she failed to submit her papers. Parveen Babi returned to Mumbai in November 1989 but was unrecognizable as her former self as she had put on a lot of weight. There were rumours that that she had Schizophrenia, a genetic mental illness although she denied it and said that it was a conspiracy by the film industry and the media to malign her image. In 1991, she shifted focus from Bollywood to interior designing. In 2002, she was again in news when she filed an affidavit in the special court hearing the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, claiming that she had gathered clinching evidence against actor Sanjay Dutt showing his involvement in the case. But she never appeared in the court. In the last four years of her life, Parveen Babi recorded every phone call. She also had the habit of recording her daily thoughts and activities

She was found dead on 22 January 2005 after her residential society secretary alerted the police that she had not collected milk and newspapers from her doorstep for three days. The police suspected that she may have been dead for up to 72 hours before her body was found. The cause of her death was not immediately known. She was found to have gangrene of the left foot as a complication of her diabetic condition. A wheelchair was found near her bed and a series of disarranged paintings, clothes, medicines and old newspapers. She had a bandage on her left foot, that she had put on, to treat her gangrene which had resulted from a long ailment of diabetes. It is possible that she was unable to walk in her last days due to a gangrenous foot and required the use of a wheelchair to move inside the house. A post mortem was conducted at Cooper Hospital and reports showed 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. The police ruled out any foul play and it was determined she succumbed due to total organ failure and diabetes.

for further reading:https://sulochanosho.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/parveen_conf.pdf