Mumbai, Mar 11 (IANS): Filmmaker-producer Mahesh Bhatt, whose relationship with actress Parveen Babi is quite well-known, recently opened up on the dark days when the lady whom he loved was in acute distress and trouble.

The director walked down the memory lane as he recollected the times when the actress was treated through electric shocks as she was battling mental illness.

Arbaaz Khan, who hosts the chat show 'The Invincibles', said: "There was probably one way of treating Parveen Babi, by giving electric shocks," to which Mahesh Bhatt replied: "That was the time I ran away with her. This was during the making of 'Shaan'."

He went on: "There was a set put up for 'Shaan' and she was a big part of the movie. I remember walking up to the director of the film, Ramesh Sippy's office. I was a nobody then, he just looked at me and said, 'What's happening?'. At that time, mental illness used to be an enigma - even now it continues to be. The doctors said that it would take 6-8 weeks for her to return to functional normalcy."

Mahesh even produced a film on his relationship with Parveen, the film, which released in 2005, was titled 'Woh Lamhe' and starred Kangana Ranaut and Shiney Ahuja.

He further mentioned: "But the film's production didn't have that much time, there were foreign film professionals involved in the film and the metre was running. A lot of money was riding on her. But then I hijacked her and took her away to Bangalore."

'Woh Lamhe' starred Kangana as a film actress who suffers from schizophrenia. Similar to what Mahesh described during the chat show, Kangana's character too is taken away by Shiney's character, who is a big director to take care of her.