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.
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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