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 4th 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
for further reading:https://sulochanosho.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/parveen_conf.pdf
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