‘Ranjish Hi Sahi’ Teaser: Mahesh Bhatt Series Starring Tahir Raj Bhasin, Amala Paul, Amrita Puri Alludes To His Relationship With Parveen Babi
We love Bollywood romances, hai na? Bollywood romance and love stories have always told us the story of boy meets girl, they fall in love and suffer some ups and downs but in the end, there’s always a happily ever after. But reel life and real life are poles apart. And the tragic love stories of Bollywood celebs are the proof. We’ve all heard of Romeo-Juliet, Heer-Ranjha and Sohni-Mahiwal but they got nothing over B-town tragic love stories. Over the years, we’ve come across some truly gripping, tragic and iconic love stories of celebs like Dilip Kumar and Madhubala, Zeenat Aman and Sanjay Khan, Raj Kapoor and Nargis. But the one couple that always comes to my mind when I think of all this is Mahesh Bhatt and Parveen Babi. Theirs was one truly a heart-wrenching love story. And now the filmmaker seems to have gone all out to tell his story to the world once again or so it seems (to me at least!). Mahesh Bhatt has teamed up with Jio Studios for their first-ever digital venture Ranjish Hi Sahi.
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The series that is set to premiere on Voot Select, tells the tragic love story of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Parveen Babi. Ranjish Hi Sahi stars Tahir Raj Bhasin, Amala Paul and Amrita Puri in lead roles. Actress Amala Paul will be making her Bollywood debut with this drama series. And guess what? The teaser of Ranjish Hi Sahi just dropped and we’re loving it. The teaser tells an interesting tale of ‘a desperate director’, ‘a determined wife’ and ‘a dangerous diva’. While the teaser does not reveal that the series is based on the love life of Mahesh Bhatt and Parveen Babi, to me the shots from the series make it pretty obvious.
Take a look:
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“Set against the backdrop of the golden era of 70’s Bollywood with great music, the series revolves around the lives of struggling film director Shankar (Tahir), diva Aamna (Amala Paul) and Shankar’s wife Anju (Amrita). A complicated triangle where the fledgling maverick film director finds a soulmate in the yesteryear A list Bollywood actress, leaving his wife stunned and him torn between two worlds. Will Shankar be able to sort the entangled thread of emotions and turmoil?” reads the press release from the makers.
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From the film poster which looks eerily familiar to Parveen Babi’s film Amar Akbar Anthony to Amala Paul dressed up exactly like the yesteryear Bollywood superstar, everything seems to point towards the drama series being about Mahesh Bhatt’s love story.
Mahesh Bhatt And Parveen Babi’s Love Story
Director Mahesh Bhatt opened up about his rather scandalous but tragic romance with Parveen Babi in an interview with Filmfare magazine. He revealed that his relationship with the starlet began around 1977 after she moved back to India from Italy following her breakup with Kabir Bedi. While the actress was filming for Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Kala Pathar (1979), Mahesh Bhatt was a flop filmmaker. It was during that time that he decided to leave his wife Lorraine Bright and daughter Pooja and began a live-in relationship with Parveen Babi.
The duo’s relationship went downhill after the actress began acting weird. Recalling an incident, Mahesh Bhatt revealed that in 1979, he walked into Parveen Babi’s apartment in Juhu to find her dressed in a film costume with a knife in her hand as she talked about how the room is bugged. He went on to share that the actress was talking about how someone was trying to kill her. Soon after the incident, the filmmaker sought out psychiatrists and Parveen Babi was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. While Mahesh Bhatt tried to be there for her, her mental condition continued to deteriorate. In fact, the doctors suggested electroconvulsive therapy to treat the starlet, the director opposed the treatment which led to him being tagged as a ‘user’ and a villain.
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Following this, Mahesh Bhatt ran away with Parveen Babi to his friend UG Krishnamurti in Bengaluru and helped the starlet heal in anonymity with the help of drug therapy. The director was suggested to stay away from the actress after which he returned to Mumbai and moved back in with his wife to fix his marriage. It was during this time that he wrote his breakthrough film Arth. But that very year, the starlet came back to the city and his life. While Bhatt had reconciled with his wife, his love for Babi was too strong for him to not get back with the actress.
Recounting the incident after which he ended his relationship with Parveen Babi, Mahesh Bhatt shared that they were about to make love when she asked him to choose between her or his friend UG who was against the actress returning to the film industry. That is when the filmmaker understood that their relationship was ‘doomed’ and walked out of her apartment in the middle of the night while the actress chased after him stark naked.
Following their breakup in 1980, the filmmaker cut off all contacts with the actress but their love story came to a tragic end in 2005 after Parveen Babi was found dead at her Mumbai home. Following her mysterious death, Mahesh Bhatt had also offered to bury her. “I owe it all to her. By offering to bury her I felt a sense of closure. As they were laying her to rest on January 23, 2005, I wondered what I’d have been without this woman. She had brought some ‘arth’ to my existence!,” said the director in his interview with Filmfare.
This isn’t the first time that Mahesh Bhatt has told the tale of his relationship with Parveen Babi. His 1982 film Arth and 2006 film Woh Lamhe are also based on his rather tragic love story.
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