Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt was infamously in a relationship with late actress Parveen Babi and the two even lived together until the latter’s mental health worsened. Bhatt revealed that Parveen was secretly married to a man, who later moved to Pakistan, and he found out about it only after he began dating the actress.
While speaking on BBC Hindi, Bhatt shared, “I got to know about her being married when we were already in a relationship. When her mother would visit from Junagadh, she would discuss this sometimes, by then we were in a relationship. I was living with her. So then I found out that she had been married once, and then the man moved to Pakistan.”
He added that several years later, when he visited Pakistan for Kara film festival, Parveen’s husband tried to meet him, but the meeting could not be worked out.
Bhatt also shared how he would see the different phases of Parveen through the day and how it impacted his mental health as well. “I saw her go through her collapse. I went through it with her. And when you see someone breaking down in front of you…” he trailed off.
He went on to say, “I saw her leave in the morning for her shoot with her make-up on but when I came back in the evening, she was shivering and sitting in a corner like an animal. She kept saying ‘someone is going to kill me.’ She was suffering from schizophrenia.”
Bhatt stated that he did try to “help her out” but in vain. “I could see that she was heading towards suicide but I didn’t have the energy to go through that whole cycle with her again. After that, we parted ways,” he said.
Parveen passed away at the age of 50 at her Mumbai residence. Her mortal remains were discovered three days after she had died when neighbours had complained to the cops about their suspicions.
