The Life of Bollywood Leading Lady Parveen Babi

Brut India

She was one of Bollywood's most glamorous, blockbusting stars. But her own life was marked by communal riots, broken hearts and mental illness... This is her riveting story.

Transcript

00:00I won't let you get your hands on my impure blood.

00:30I won't let you get your hands on my impure blood.

01:00She wasn't really used to interacting with other people her age.

01:04So there was a lot that she had to learn at the age of 16, 17 when she got into college.

01:10Whether it was learning the language or learning pop culture that everyone was talking about at the time.

01:16So just how to deal with other people.

02:00Music

02:28There was a director by the name of B.R. Ishara who spotted her in Ahmedabad while he was shooting there.

02:34He liked what she looked like and called her over for a screen test.

02:38And made her an offer right there and then.

02:41And she was like, oh I'm not going to accept the offer until I know what the story is.

02:44Music

02:53You couldn't take your eyes off her when she was on screen.

02:56There was just something about her that made you want to see more of her.

03:27Her character Anita had economic and social autonomy.

03:32She wasn't coy about sleeping with somebody without marriage.

03:36She was okay with having a child out of wedlock.

03:39She made her own money.

03:40She didn't depend on Amitabh's character for money.

03:43And those are the kind of things that we kind of see now.

03:46That kind of autonomy that female characters have.

03:52Music

04:17Have you come to interview me for a magazine or newspaper?

04:21Music

04:50Music

05:10But I think the one thing that hasn't changed from then to now is how the media kind of deals with mental health issues.

05:19At the time that Parveen was going through her illness.

05:23And also at times very, very publicly.

05:26They called her mad.

05:28They wrote about, they said she'd gone off her rockers.

05:32They were just very, very insensitive to what was going on with her.

05:38Music

06:07Music

06:17When she quit the industry it was the second time.

06:19She'd done that once in 77 when she left with Kabir.

06:22So directors and producers at the time knew that she could be a flight risk.

06:27And yet they wanted to work with her because she was a really, really professional artist.

06:33She was somebody who remembered her dialogues really well.

06:36She was completely no fuss, even if it meant that she worked through her lunch break.

07:06Music

07:12I think one of the saddest parts of Parveen's life was the fact that she didn't have a support system.

07:18And the few people who did really care about her, she kept driving them away.

07:24They didn't know how to deal with what they thought were very wild accusations.

07:29Also remember there was very little awareness of mental illness at the time.

07:33People didn't talk about it openly. People didn't get the treatment that they needed.

08:03Music

08:31When I started researching for the book, everyone would tell me,

08:36she drank, she smoked, she did drugs, she had a promiscuous life.

08:41Which is why she went mad.

08:46And when I started researching, I realized that she never did drugs.

08:49She barely ever drank. She was a social drinker.

08:53And yes, she was a smoker. She was like a chain smoker pretty much until the end of her life.

08:59And she wasn't promiscuous. She had very, very steady relationships.

09:03What was unfortunate was the fact that eventually the only aspect of her life that they kind of focused completely on

09:10was the scandalous bit. They did not look at her as anything beyond her scandals.

09:15And those are the impressions that fans are left with.

09:22Music

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