Parveen Babi - Later Life

Later Life

On July 30th, 1983, Parveen Babi left India and the film industry at the height of her career and travelled to various countries for a spiritual journey with U. G. Krishnamurti and her friend Valentine and spent most of the time in California, U.S. On 7th April 1984, She was suspected at John F. Kennedy International Airport after she failed to submit her identification papers and as she behaved to be difficult, the authorities handcuffed her and kept her in a general ward with thirty other mentally disturbed patients. The Indian Consul General, who had been informed of the unfortunate incident, had personally come to visit Parveen at the hospital. During U.G.'s visit, Parveen smiled and chatted with the Consul as though nothing had happened.

When asked about how she felt about experiences of people and countries that she lived in, she replied "My experience of people is that human beings are very good people. However, the powerful, to serve their vested power interests manipulate pressure and use ordinary human beings and their power ploy and force them into negative act. However, I believe, eventually, the human spirit of positive will triumph and as far as other attributes of people are considered I find Americans to be extremely progressive and ingenious race. And I identify a great deal with Americans."

She returned to Mumbai in November 1989 where she was unrecognizable as her former self after having put on a considerable amount of weight. She was rumoured to have diagonised with Paranoid Schizophrenia, a genetic mental illness although she regularly denied it and said that it was a conspiracy by the film industry and the media to malign her image and make her appear as insane, so that they can cover up their crimes. Some sources indicate that it could have been situation of acute depression, as she had many failed relationships and even one of her former lovers had openly humiliated her. This led Parveen to break relationships with all her close dear ones including her own blood relations and had no contacts with them and had become reclusive as she distrusted everyone

She accused many foreign dignitaries as well as Indian film personalities including Amitabh Bachchan, Bill Clinton, Robert Redford, Prince Charles, Al Gore, US government, British government, French government, BJP government, Roman Catholic Church, CIA, CBI of conspiring to kill her but her petition in court was dismissed for lack of evidence and when she was asked to show her evidences by the press, it was some sort of scribblings on notepad In an Interview to film magazine dated 1989, she said "Amitabh Bachchan is a super international gangster. He is after my life. His goons kidnapped me and I was kept on an Island where they performed a surgery on me and planted one transmitter/chip right under my ear." There was a photograph of Babi showing a scar below her ears.

During the early 1990s, whenever Press or Journalists would go to her then Kalumal estate apartment in Juhu for an interview, she would often ask them to eat her food and drink her water, so that she is assured her food is not poisoned and assume her makeup was contaminated, so that her skin is peeled off and according to her, the International mafia has cut off her electricity in order to harass her. Even before starting an interview, She would keep her Dictaphone on, announcing the day, date, time and the name of Journalists and publication into the microphone and shall record before the conversation began. Many Journalists found her to be very intelligent, vivid, convivial person and one who spoke fluent English. She would later refer to them as “agents of Amitabh Bachchan”

Nevertheless she started a career as an interior decorator in 1991. In 2002, she again hit the headlines when she filed an affidavit in the special court hearing the 1993 serial bomb blasts case, claiming that she had gathered clinching evidence against actor Sanjay Dutt showing his involvement in the case, but she did not turn up in court after being summoned saying that she was afraid of being killed. She was said to have lived lonely and converted to Christianity during the late 1990s and also ate Pork because she found not eating Pork as Racist.

In an Interview in 1998 as she said I was a born Muslim and later, I converted to Christianity. But I have never done things I didn’t be­lieve. Even when I was a Muslim, I didn’t understand why it made me a more spiritual entity, if I did not eat pork. I always felt that the es­sence of spirituality lies in being a good human and following good, positive principles. The Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant at the Taj, those days, was quite famous for pork delicacies and every time I got a break from shooting, I would rush off to the Golden Dragon. Whenever my friends questioned me about my eating pork, I would say that it was more important for me to be a human being than a racist.

However, she managed to maintain her posh penthouse apartment in Mumbai and live affluently from sound financial investments.