Parveen's live-in relationships — notably with actor Kabir Bedi and later filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt — were unconventional for their time, and Bhatt drew on her mental illness for two of his films.
Parveen Babi lived openly with actor Kabir Bedi during the 1970s, at a time when such relationships were rare and heavily gossiped about. She was later close to filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who tried to get her treatment as her illness worsened.
Bhatt drew on his experience of her breakdown for his films Arth (1982) and Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee (1993) — a creative use of her private suffering that has itself been debated. After her death, several people who had been close to her spoke about how difficult her final years had been to witness.
Sources
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