When Mahesh Bhatt Recalled Parveen Babi In A Film Costume, Curled Up On The Floor Trembling Nervously (Photo Credit: Instagram/IMDb)
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Romantic relationships are nothing new in Bollywood. Often actors and actresses fall in love on the sets of their films, and their affair becomes the talk of the town. One such supposed relationship that took B-town by surprise was that between Mahesh Bhatt and Parveen Babi.
After the actress’ separation from Kabir Bedi, Parveen was shattered and found solace in the filmmaker. The two began their relationship, sparking rumours in tinsel town. While it may seem like a typical love story, it was far from it.
In an excerpt from a forthcoming biography on Parveen Babi, author Karishma Upadhyay narrates one anecdote from the tangled lives of Mahesh Bhatt, Kabir Bedi and Parveen Babi. As reported by Zoom Entertainment, the author wrote, “The last time he (Mahesh Bhatt) had met her, Parveen was living with Kabir”.
Although Mahesh Bhatt and Kabir Bedi got along well, Mahesh didn’t start feeling anything for Kabir until after he appeared to have broken up with Parveen Babi. Parveen Babi found comfort in the director as things with Kabir went south. Due to a series of circumstances, the two found themselves in a romantic situation.
Their blissful relationship, though, suddenly became depressing. In an interview with a recognised publication, Mahesh Bhatt recently talked about Parveen Babi’s mental health. He described a time when he saw an actress who was acting in a movie costume trembling nervously and clutching a kitchen knife in her hand.
The said incident has also been described by Karishma Upadhyay. “He walked into the house and headed straight for their bedroom. ‘Here she was, curled up on the floor like a beast in one corner of the room,’ he says. ‘She was still in her film costume. She was holding a knife; it was the knife she used at the breakfast table”, he wrote.
According to leading psychiatrists, Parveen was given a paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis. Mahesh Bhatt noted that despite his best efforts, persuading her against her illusions was difficult because they continued worsening. In the book, Karishma Upadhyay recalls Mahesh Bhatt’s comment, “As a child, I had seen a south Indian actor named Ranjan in our neighbourhood, he was said to be a victim of schizophrenia, and that was my only reference.”
Parveen Babi passed away in 2005, and after her death, Mahesh Bhatt wrote for Outlook, “For Me, She Died Twice, once when she had the mental breakdown and now. I owe everything that I am today to my brief association with this magnificent woman. She was a rebel who lived life on her own terms, died on her own terms.”
