Dangerous Nexus: Bollywood Celebrities’ Tryst With Drugs & Alcohol

Mumbai: Bollywood and addiction to drugs and alcohol go hand in hand.

From Sanjay Dutt and Parveen Babi to Fardeen Khan, there are so many instances of film personalities pressing the self-destruct button by courting these dangerous habits. Mumbai. The issue once again reared its ugly head following NCB’s arrest of Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan’s son Aryan, following raids on a rave party aboard a ship cruise off

Here is a list of actors who followed that path:

Sanjay Dutt

One of the first high-profile celebrities to admit to substance abuse, Sanjay Dutt was arrested for possession of drugs in 1982. It came a year after he made an explosive debut in the superhit movie ‘Rocky’. His father Sunil Dutt sent him to rehab, as his film career continued with a number of huge grossers. “When my father took me to America (for rehab), they gave me a list (of drugs) and I ticked every drug on it because I had taken all of them. The doctor told my dad, ‘What kind of food do you eat in India? Going by the drugs he did, he should be dead by now’!” Sanjay said in an interview several years later, adding that he quit drugs because he wanted to be out of it.

Ranbir Kapoor

Ranbir Kapoor admitted in an interview that he smoked weed when he was in film school. He has also spoken about his alcoholism in younger years and that he got it from his father, the late Rishi Kapoor. It was his mother Neetu Kapoor who had a calming effect on Ranbir and helped him come out of the addiction. It was while shooting Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar that Ranbir had weed again. “I used it again during Rockstar, this time as an acting tool. It was hard to get in the moment on stage with 300 bored junior artistes posing as a real audience. Pot made those moments feel real,” he revealed.

Prateik Babbar

By his own admission, Prateik Babbar took to drugs at the age of 13. It started as experimentation with marijuana and hashish, but developed into an addiction to cocaine and acid. A love child of actors Raj Babbar and Smita Patil, Prateik had a disturbed childhood but managed to kick the dangerous addiction eight years later in 2017, after successful rehab. “My first real drug was a disturbed childhood. Constantly faced with an internal dilemma, the voices in my head debating where I belong and who I am, drugs came disguised as a glitzy escape… Getting out of bed was almost impossible; nausea greeted me each morning, my body ached and I oscillated between hot and cold every few minutes. At that point, I didn’t even have a drug of choice, I took whatever I could lay my hands on,” Prateik admitted a few years ago.

Pooja Bhatt

Addicted to alcohol for decades, it was a text message from dad Mahesh Bhatt, which made her rethink lifestyle choices. “Alcohol is comforting, it colours your evening. It’s a socially accepted narcotic even at business lunches and in the boardroom. Also, living in a fast-paced city, being in a high-stress profession, it becomes a reason to celebrate and cope with failure. Your film is a hit, you bathe in champagne… it flops, a single malt lessens the pain. I was 45 and if I wanted to give myself 10 years of living, I had to quit before I drank myself to the grave. I had to reclaim the sharper, brighter me which had got watered down,” she said after giving up alcohol last December.

Fardeen Khan

Another star-kid gone astray in his younger years, Fardeen Khan was arrested by Mumbai Police for possession of cocaine in 2001, when he was already part of Bollywood with three releases. Once he was free of the addiction, he spoke about his dark days and advised to stay away from drugs. “Any mind-altering substance, whether it’s narcotics or alcohol or prescription pills, creates a lethal dependency. Before you know it, you’re sucked into a downward spiral. The idea of any addiction is very damaging. People have all kinds of weird addiction, even shopping. My only addiction (now) is the love of my family. They’re my life-supporting system. Please educate yourself vis-a-vis the consequences of whatever you are experimenting with. Addiction is not cool.” Though he acted in 20-odd films, he paid the price as his career never took off. The drugs case dragged for over a decade and was closed in 2012.

Manisha Koirala

Manisha Koirala, of ‘1942 A Love Story’ fame, beat ovarian cancer later in life, was addicted to alcohol at point of her career. “In life, be it relationships or alcohol, we need to be the master of the situation and not the victim. My friends and family drink, my father drinks sometimes, so there’s no taboo as such. But you need to know your limits so that you don’t flip and start going on a downhill journey. It could happen because of anything- some people get into it due to pressure while others hit the bottle because of a heartbreak. It’s high emotion and drama-packed life. Creative people are more emotionally charged, so I am a super sensitive person. But the reason I’ve written about it is that it goes out there and also it’s a sort of closure for me — that this happened with me, the chapter has ended and now we move on,” she wrote in her book on how she overcame cancer.

Parveen Babi

At the peak of her career, Parveen Babi ruled the hearts of millions of men. Her unmatchable beauty, glamour and decent acting skills made her one of the most sought-after heroines in Bollywood. But her life and career took a terrible turn after she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Many believed that failed relationships with Mahesh Bhatt, Kabir Bedi and Danny Denzongpa drove her to drugs and alcohol, which fuelled her mental health problems. There was a time when she allegedly claimed that she had proof of Sanjay Dutt’s involvement in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case. One of the lead actors of multi-starrers like Deewar, Namak Halal and Amar Akbar Anthony in the 1970s and 1980s ultimately suffered a tragic, lonely and untimely death.