5 Suicides That Rocked Tinsel Town

1. Parveen Babi

She is often cited as one of the most beautiful actresses to have ever appeared in Indian cinema. Parveen Babi was one of the most glamorous actress of 1970-80s with blockbusters like Deewar, Namak Halaal, Amar Akbar Anthony and Shaan. She was found dead in her Mumbai apartment on 22 January 2005 after it was noticed that she had not collected milk and newspapers from her doorstep for three days. Her postmortem reports showed that she had not consumed anything for more than three days and sadly starved to death. The police ruled out any foul play and it was determined she succumbed to all organ failure.

2. Divya Bharti

Hailed as “the most interesting young actress of her generation”, Divya Bharti acted in a number of commercially successful Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films in the early 1990s. Bharti’s career was cut short by her death on 5 April 1993 at the age of 19. The circumstances of her death, falling from the window ledge of her five-storey Versova apartment have been the subject of dispute over the years. Police investigated the case and closed it five years later without a conclusion.

3. Silk Smitha

Silk Smitha, the South-Indian actress was popularly known for her glam doll roles in South Indian films. In 1996, Smitha was found dead in her Chennai apartment. A year earlier, she had tried becoming a film producer. Financial problems, disillusionment in love and alcohol dependency apparently led to depression. It is suspected that Smitha committed suicide by poisoning herself.

4. Guru Dutt

Guru Dutt, often credited with ushering in the golden era of Hindi cinema, was the first among Bollywood stars who committed suicide. He had a raging love affair with Waheeda Rehman and a running quarrel with his wife Geeta Dutt. On 10 October 1964, Guru Dutt was found dead in his bed in his rented apartment in Mumbai. He is said to have been mixing alcohol and sleeping pills. His death may have been suicide, or just an accidental overdose. It would have been his third suicide attempt.

5. Manmohan Desai

Known for his family-centered, action-song-and-dance films which catered to the tastes of the Indian masses, famous director Manmohan Desai fell from the balcony of his building in Khetwadi as the rail he was leaning on collapsed. Very little is known about his death except that he was suffering from chronic back pain. There were rumours of him committing suicide but have not been confirmed.

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