When Kabir Bedi Recalled His Open Marriage With Protima Gupta Caused Him Anxiety, Lack Of Intimacy & Loneliness, “Parveen Babi Filled That Void,” He Said
Throwback to when Kabir Bedi revealed how he ended his 6-year-long marriage with Protima Gupta after falling in love with Parveen Babi. Read
When Kabir Bedi Revealed How He Ended His Marriage With Protima Gupta To Be With Parveen Babi ( Photo Credit – IMDb )
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Bollywood’s veteran actor Kabir Bedi has often been in the news owing to his personal life. The actor who was first married to Promita Gupta, tied the knot for the third time with Parveen Dusanj in 2016. After his divorce with Protima in 1974, he got married to Nikki in 1992 and left her in 2005. But did you know there was time, he had fallen in love with Bollywood’s top actress Parveen Babi while he was married to Protima?
In 2021, the actor had released his book ‘Stories I Must Tell: The Emotional Journey of an Actor’ where he had opened up about his open marriage with Gupta while opening up about how he told her about his love for Parveen Babi while wanting to move out of their marriage and be with the actress.
Opening up about the same, Kabir Bedi wrote, “Our open marriage may have seemed like a good idea at first. In the end, it only caused me greater anxiety. It had led to a lack of intimacy between us. I didn’t feel the love that I wanted, the caring and sharing I needed. Nor was I able to give it. The old magic had gone. I was feeling alone, empty and dejected. Parveen Babi filled that void. She was a ravishingly beautiful actress with fair skin, long black hair and dark, mesmerising eyes. Until then, I’d always thought of her as ‘the girlfriend of Danny Denzongpa’.”
Further added, “He was a good-looking Sikkimese actor, two years younger than me, a year older than Parveen. In the years ahead, he would become a highly successful villain in Bollywood and be nominated for many Filmfare Awards. Parveen began her rapid rise to stardom during their four years together. Her living openly with Danny, wearing jeans and smoking in public, had given her a bohemian image in India. But, morally, she was a conservative Gujarati girl. While the rest of the Juhu gang talked about the ‘free s*x’ preaching of Guru Osho, she believed in sexual fidelity. It’s what I was looking for when I fell in love with her.”
Kabir Bedi went on to reveal how he revealed his love for Parveen Babi to Protima who ended up telling him “please go our open marriage is over!”
“There was no easy way to break the news (to Protima). ‘I’m going over to Parveen’s tonight,’ I said softly when she came in. ‘Parveen’s!’ she repeated in surprise. I could see her computing what must have happened. ‘But I’ve only just arrived. Can’t you stay tonight at least?’ I shook my head. ‘No, I have to be with her tonight … and every night.’ In that moment, she realised that our relationship had changed forever. She let out a deep breath and looked at me. ‘Do you love her?’ I nodded, not without sadness. ‘Does she love you?’ she asked, her voice a notch higher.”
“’Yes,’ I said gruffly, wanting to cry. I knew I was ending a relationship where we’d shared life-changing experiences together, happy and unhappy, moral and immoral, for six tumultuous years. But I didn’t want to show vulnerability. I had to be strong to end it. I held her by the shoulders to embrace her goodbye. She clung to me and burst out crying. Then she sat down on the bed and sighed deeply before she spoke. ‘Please leave me alone now,’ she said in a firm voice as tears welled in her eyes. ‘Leave me alone. Please go!’ Our ‘open marriage’ was over,” read an excerpt from his book.
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