Long before the blockbuster hit movie Khoon Bhari Maang came alive in the year 1988 and set Bollywood on fire for a considerable period of time, we knew Kabir Bedi with his thick sensualist’s lips, powerful shoulders and a gentle smile that broke like a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, as the star of Sandokan, a worldwide hit Italian television series of 1976 that made him a staple for the list of the classic villains list, with his name now being aside Fu Manchu, Svengali, Lord Henry, Heathcliff, Dracula etc.
If you looked at this man in his teens, who had already acquired the fair, handsome looks and told him he would be worldwide famous, much like Errol Flynn, he would have never believed you, although at 19 he had the rare achievement of interviewing the Beatles and getting a chance to make his adulation known towards John Lennon, who with his round glasses, cocky wit and full head of hair sparked similar reactions in other folks of the era.
His dating life was no less spectacular, he dated another famous, empowered woman, Protima Bedi who initially gained notoriety for streaking across the Juhu beach and then later becoming an Odissi exponent, she wasn’t the only one, but she was by far the most notable, matched only by the voluptuous, penetrating eyed Parveen Babi. So it would be very natural for a man like this to share his life in an autobiography, which he did and titled it Stories I Must Tell, which chronicles every candid detail, is searingly honest, flamboyant and utterly personal.
It has been voted Amazon’s Most Popular Book of the year 2022 and rightfully so, it helps the previous generation know Kabir Bedi better and to my generation, it introduces us to a new type of star, a classic one.