Parveen Babi Death Anniversary: From a sizzling siren to a lone warrior, revisiting the troubled life of the late actor...

To many she was an enigma, to others she was a beautiful mystery, albeit with a troubled mind. Parveen Babi might not have had a conventional or contented life by any standards, but the late diva enjoyed a huge fan following and lit up the screen with her bold avatars, that is until multiple health and mental issues took over, eventually consuming her life, this day, 18 years back. On her Death Anniversary today, we take a look at the late actor's sombre life...

Parveen Babi was born on April 4, 1954 in Junagadh, Saurashtra (now in Gujarat). She was the single child of a well to do Junagadh-based family who belonged to the Khilji Babi tribe of Pashtuns. Her mother passed away before her and she lost her father when she was a child.

Babi was one of Bollywood's most bankable female stars in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Widely known for her bold avatar, she appeared in movies like Kranti, Deewar, Shaan, The Burning Train and many others. However, she vanished at the top of her career in 1983.

Parveen's first relationship in the industry was one with Danny Denzongpa, followed by actor Kabir Bedi. However, being the extremely private person that Danny was, he never publicly spoke about the same. She then started a relationship with filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt in 1977, that quickly turned ugly when Parveen fell sick. Eventually, it was Mahesh who referred her to a psychiatrist.

Babi struggled with paranoid schizophrenia through much of her career, leading to episodes of debilitating paranoia, delusion and violent aggression. She once even blamed Amitabh Bachchan for being her biggest adversary and claimed that he was trying to kill her.

Parveen Babi, apart from being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, also had diabetes and osteoarthritis of the knee. She died of multiple organ failure at the age of 50 and her body was only discovered three days after her death. It was Mahesh Bhatt who helped with her last rites.