Actress Vimi’s Heart-Breaking Life Story
After her debut in Raj Kumar and Sunil Dutt's Humraaz (1967), Vimi became a household name in the late 1960s. B. R. Chopra's production company also starred Mumtaz, a lovely actress. Filmed by Chopras and released to rave reviews, the movie raked in millions at the box office and put newcomer Vimi on the Hollywood map.
Her inadvertent introduction into showbiz was both astonishing and regrettable because this one step was the beginning of her tragic downfall." Vimmi had earned a degree in psychology from Sophia College in Mumbai.
An accomplished singer, she appeared frequently on the broadcasts of All India Radio Bombay. Humraaz director Ravi introduced her to B R Chopra, and she landed the part with ease. According to BR Chopra's admiration for his new discoveries in a 1967 interview, she was "intelligent, educated, and grasps things quickly." This begs the question of why, after their smash debut, the director never used her again.
Chopra's separation from the industry led to an existential crisis. After the big-budget and highly anticipated Aabroo (1968) was released and tanked, she lost her credibility and her career went downhill. Even artists of Ashok Kumar and Nirupa Roy’s stature were unable to save it. She appeared in a couple more films with Shashi Kapoor but failed to make a name for herself.
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Vimi, who appeared in fewer than ten films, was a leading actress with charm and artistic ability. While Patanga, starring Shashi Kapoor, was a modest hit in 1971, her follow-up with the actor in 1974, Vachan, failed to make an impression.
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After nearly all of her films were a financial failure, she declared that she was no longer making movies for the money; she had plenty of it, as seen by her extravagant clothes, posh cars, and pricey coats.
However, the truth is sometimes more complicated than it appears.
When it came to her personal life, she was also caught up in a storm. Vimi, unlike other Bollywood actors, was already married and a mother of two when she began her career in Bollywood. After falling in love with a Calcutta-based Marwari businessman, Shiv Agarwal, the lovely girl from a Punjabi Sikh household had troubled relations with her parents. When she married him against her parents' wishes, she didn't receive their blessings.
It was the only family she had left, but her decision to enter the entertainment industry ended up ruining it. For whatever reason, the films that she mentioned as having been produced by the husband she claimed to have supported her never came to fruition. We'll never know if she was telling the truth or if she was hallucinating. After she passed away, it became known that the couple had splitup a long time ago.
Vimi was unemployed and living with a small-time film broker who was abusing her in every possible manner after just seven years in the industry. Prostitution was forced upon the once-proud owner of fancy outfits and sports cars as her fortunes dwindled.
Because she had no other options, she turned to cheap and hazardous booze for solace. Her body was ravaged by a lifetime of heavy drinking. At the age of 34, she died as a result of catastrophic liver issues that had gradually developed. No one in Bollywood even knew who she was, and her death came as no surprise. There were no mourners at her funeral because she died in the general ward of Nanavati Hospital.
When her spouse finally left her, it was found that she had been the victim of domestic abuse. Even after death, her reputation was tarnished by a friend's slanderous obituary in the Ananda Bazar Patrika. Writing that she had "gone out without her husband in the fond hope that some producer or actor will make her an offer" and justifying her agony and suffering for her "sin" of not adhering to social rules, the writer called death a magnificent pain reliever.