Stardom and its lavishness have an unparalleled charm. Nevertheless, this luxury does not come without pains which sometimes could also amount to losing all your gains. Yes! It happens.
These celebrities will already agree with what we wrote above. The reason could be anything- lack of work, unmanaged expenses, frugal expenditures, you name them. But, somehow the elegance was brought down to economic threshold, and riches were converted to rags. These are our top 7 picks for celebrities who found themselves broke real quick.
1. A K Hangal- Could you imagine that one of our favourite characters “Imam Chacha” from the iconic movie “Sholay” could have died in a state of famishing poverty, unable to pay his medical bills. It’s tragically sad to know. The veteran actor who was also a participant in the Indian National Movement died in 2012- unhealthy and penniless, because not any of his family members too were able to support him financially.
2. Meena Kumari- The name itself puts all of us in awe. The beautiful actress who came to be accoladed as “The Tragic Queen” not only because of the roles she portrayed onscreen but also because of her personal life. Her marriage was shattered which made her alcoholic to the extent of damaging her liver. “Pakeezah”, her last movie was shot during her health condition astronomically bad. She died all alone after three weeks of the release of the film, impoverished and unable to pay her medical bills.
3. Parveen Babi- Who could have known that the glamorous actress, who once had the title of the gracing the Time magazine for the first time in Bollywood, would have such a mysterious and morbid end with virtually nothing to her name? Parveen Babi certainly had the worst share of luck.
After all the accolades and appreciations and belongings to her, Parveen Babi’s end was certainly a heart wrenching one. In the later stages of her career, she had mental problems and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Coping up with all of it entirely alone, her body was found three days after her in her Mumbai flat. After postmortem, it was speculated that she starved herself to death.
4. Vimi- Starting from B. R. Chopra’s “Humaraaz”, the actress with the innocent eyes got instant popularity. But, the adage “once a star, always a start” did not hold true for her. After her marriage was called off, she faced the brutality of luck and was soon left without any work. To clear her debts off she had to sell her business. Battling poverty, she underwent a lonely death in just her 30s, left friendless and penniless. Another sad detail about her death was that her body was reported to have been taken to the crematorium on a ‘thela‘.
5. Achala Sachdev- From the beautiful “Zohra Zabee” of the song “Ae meri Zohra Zabee” to performing ‘dadi’ in the classic ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’, the phenomenal actress had worked in more than 250 Bollywood films. She was loved by the audiences for her philanthropic roles. But, in the later stages of her life, she was secluded from family, friends and relatives and was left to fight the old-age ailments and poor finance entirely on her own. She died in 2011, left alone, with no relative or possession besides her name.
6. Gitanjali Nagpal- Intoxication can snatch everything from you, and here is an example. Once a top model with matted dreadlocks, Gitanjali Nagpal, was flocked by fans, media and Bollywood fraternity in her success days but after that, she was left alone and was gradually faded into oblivion. At last, she had to work as a maid, spent her nights with men to satiate her yearning for drugs and at the end was reduced to life at the footpath, stealing and begging. Hers is a lesson at how a wrong move of could lead your fame and fortune to drugs and self-destruction.
7. Raj Kiran- The actor with the promising career who made ‘Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe ho’ a legendary song with co-star Shabana Azmi was found in a mental asylum fending for himself. The actor with many leads and supportive roles who once saw the peak of stardom in the 80s and 90s went missing for almost a decade and was assumed to be dead.
Later on, it was Rishi Kapoor who made this heart-rending revelation that the actor who famously played his ‘pre-incarnation’ in ‘Karz’ was confined to a mental institution for his drastic health and mental conditions. What’s more tragic was that he was left by his family and friends on his own devices where he had to pay for his own bills working under the same asylum.
So these are some of those personalities who broke themselves from the glamourous start and were left to have financially ugly endings. There are, of course, many more. Keep checking on us for more such contents.
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