Vintage South Asian + Middle Eastern Actresses ✿

"One thing that has influenced my personal life, my career, my attitude, the person I have become and every decision that I have made is a fact that I have been a loner as a child."

Parveen Babi was the most glamorous Indian actress of the 1970s, but in the 80s she tragically became a recluse and developed paranoid schizophrenia.
She died alone in her home in 2005 of diabetes & gangrene, and her body wasn’t discovered for 3 days. At one point, she was the second highest paid actress in Bollywood.

"I will take my leave of you, but I will remember you always because you are the ones who encouraged me and lifted me up high. I will remember you forever, forever, even in the afterlife."

From her suicide note:

“No one is responsible for my death. I swallowed 100 synthetic morphine pills and took other sleeping pills. Thank god I managed to go. I am disgusted and always have been disgusted by all of you. When I was only 15, I understood what people in this world are worth. I finally managed to leave this disgusting world. It would be a joke if I said it was hard to die. I am not made to be a whore, I am sensitive and emotional, no one knows. Tell no one that I am dead. I don’t want to be buried according to Muslim traditions. Burn my wigs and scatter the ashes. Wrap me in a white robe and cover me up, that’s all…”

"I don't know why I have been branded a glam doll. Unfortunately, I was branded as a glamour actress and was forced to do only glamour roles."

"Love is the best thing in the world... and, the convergence between two soulmates, who complete each other, think about each other, and care about each other is the most beautiful and the sweetest thing in the world."

"Seduction has nothing to do with your body or physicality or nudity, your tone of voice could be seductive, your smile could be seductive, your eye contact could be seductive, you can be seductive and sexy with classiness without having to be provocative or vulgar."

"At the age of seven, I wanted a doll with blonde hair and blue eyes like other girls in my class. But my father gave me a black doll and said 'black is beautiful.' Telling this to a seven-year-old was quite peculiar, but these were the values we inherited from him."

"The honor of a woman is not measured by covering her head or hair, the honor of a woman is measured by her way of thinking, and if her way of thinking is not ethical (moral) , her honor will be taken off, even if she was covered with iron."

“Small cinema began with the portrayal of the real Indian woman, who happens to be very much a ‘zamin ki aurat’ ... ‘mitti ki aurat’ (woman of the earth). I am continuing to do earthy roles because I am that sort of a person myself. I was fortunate that I could extend the kind of person I am to the roles that were given to me in the beginning of my career.”

She was delighted that Greek–French film director Costa-Gavras had organized a retrospective of her films in France, and after Bhumika, a woman “touched me on the shoulder, looked into my eyes and said ‘Do you know, that is my story’.” Bhumika was the biopic of Hansa Wadkar, a screen and stage actress from the 1930s and 40s.

"Nobody ever thought of me as dumb. They always knew me as cerebral, a thinking person. Educated and so on. But I was always given glamorous roles.

I listen to heavy metal thanks to my son. When I argue with him on the kind of music he is listening to, he says, 'listen to it.' I listen and think well that is not so bad!"

"People tell me I ought to get married. But I am too busy right now, too much in love with my work."

Madhubala never used to wear any kind of jewellery off-screen. She had explained, "I consider it a waste of money; and that's a sin when so many people in the world have not the means to buy a meal."

She was killed by her jealous fiancé in Istanbul in 1983.

"I was never meant to sit at home."