Bollywood actress Pooja Bedi’s mother, Protima Bedi, was a well-known model-turned-dancer who lived her life her way. Years after her death in 1989, her daughter Pooja shared that her mother had passed away as per her desire. She also claimed that her body was never found, as she believed that she would die on the lap of nature. Pooja further revealed that before her mother went to Kullu Manali, she handed over all her property papers and jewellery to her. After Protima embarked on her journey, she also wrote her last letters of 12-pages summarising her entire life. 

In an interview with Screen, Pooja Bedi said, “There are so many regrets about her leaving the planet before she even turned 50. There is so much that I wish I had done with her. But she was a woman who lived life on her terms. She lived the way she wanted, and she literally died the way she wanted. She always said she wanted to die out in nature and, you know, be one with nature.”

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She continued, “At the end of this beautiful, glorious life, she didn’t want to be pushed into some crematorium with a mock ceremony of her ashes being put in the Ganga. She wanted to die out in nature; that was going to be a grand finale. And that’s exactly the way it panned out. Her body was never found. You know, it was one with the universe, one with the earth. She was just this incredible energy.”

When asked if Protima had a premonition about her death, the actress said, “She came to me, wrote out her will, handed me her jewellery, handed me all her documents, handed me her property papers, and said, ‘You never know.’ I said, ‘Why are you being so dramatic?’ And she just said, ‘You never know, darling.’ She’d handed me everything that she ever possessed. And she said, ‘Siddhartha’s (Pooja’s brother) no more, he’s committed suicide. I’ve handed over Nrityagram to Lynn Fernandez; you’re my only mooring. I want you to let me go.'”

Pooja Bedi concluded, “And she went off to Kulu Manali, wrote me a 12-page letter summarising her entire life from birth, from her childhood, to her relationships, to her marriages, to her kids, to her dance journey, to where she was before her death, saying, ‘I’m in Kullu, Kullu means Valley of the Gods, and may all the gods and goddesses know of my eternal gratitude, I’m happy. I’m so very, very happy.’ And then she went off, and that was the last we ever heard from her. So what a journey, what a life, what a woman, what a mother.”

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Who Was Protima Bedi? 

Protima was an Indian model who became an Odissi dancer. She founded a dance school named Nrityagram near Bangalore. She was married to Bollywood actor Kabir Bedi in 1969 until they were seperated in 1974. They were the parents of Pooja Bedi and Siddharth Bedi, who committed suicide at the age of 25 in the US. Born on October 12, 1948, Protima passed away at the age of 49 in 1998 due to an unknown reason.