Shabana Azmi and Parveen Babi rose to prominence in the Hindi film industry around the same time. They also worked together in films like Amar Akbar Anthony and Jwalamukhi. Parveen was a popular mainstream star back then, but she was also dealing with mental health problems. At the time, discussions around mental health and access to proper help were not easily available. In a recent interview, Shabana recalled the time when she started noticing changes in Parveen’s behaviour.

Shabana Azmi witnessed Parveen Babi's change in behaviour

Talking to Filmfare, Shabana spoke about the behavioural changes she observed in Parveen on film sets. "I saw Parveen Babi going mad in front of my eyes. We were doing a Prakash Mehra film, Jwalamukhi, and we were on set when she suddenly looked at the chandelier and started screaming, ‘This chandelier is going to fall on me.’ Even on the sets of Ashanti, I saw that she was eating very little. She used to eat two grapes and say, ‘I am bursting,’” the actor added.