| This article is about Fareed Bhansali from the novel. You may be looking for Fareed Bhansali from the AMC adaptation. |
Dr. Fareed Bhansali is an Anglo-Indian doctor brought into the blood by Seth, who seeks to improve the lives of and discover the truth about the nature of vampire kind. Fareed has an insatiably curious personality, and is troubled by anything he doesn't understand, but enthusiastic about any new information he discovers. He is became a vampire at age forty five, and is about six feet tall, has golden skin, blue-black curly hair, an inquisitive face, and large green eyes.
He was transformed into a vampire while lying in a coma in Mumbai, having been the victim of a murder attempt plotted by his wife and a fellow research scientist. With Seth, Fareed forms a team with human researchers, mostly doctors and scientists who have been disgraced from the medical community for insisting on the existence of vampires, with whom he researches the biology of vampires.
In 1994, Fareed meets Lestat in Los Angeles, and convinces him to participate in an experiment that allows him to have sex with Dr. Flannery Gilman, one of Fareed's researchers. Unbeknownst to Lestat, Fareed collects his sperm from the experiment, and uses it to create an embryo with Flannery's egg which Flannery's incubates, giving birth to Viktor. Fareed and Seth help raise and educate Viktor, and he views them as his fathers. In about 2004, Fareed gives the Dark Gift to Flannery.
Fareed works with Maharet and Jesse to scan Mekare's brain, to attempt to find the cause of her catatonic state, but doesn't find conclusive results. He also succeeds in finding ways to give vampires missing body parts new ones that will not need to be continually replaced (like Maharet's eyes), giving Flavius a new leg and Thorne a new pair of eyes. He offers Gregory and Flavius use of the same hormones he used in the experiment with Lestat to allow them to have human sexual experiences again, a plot element that has become frequently used in fan works based on The Vampire Chronicles.
In Prince Lestat, Viktor is kidnapped by Rhoshamandes to coerce Fareed to help him transfer the Sacred Core from Mekare into his own body. Once Viktor escapes, Fareed is present at Trinity Gate when he returns, and travels to Maharet's compound with David, Jesse, and Seth once the danger has passed.
In Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, Fareed lives with Seth in Paris in Armand's home on the Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and investigates the mysterious goings on at Collingsworth Pharmaceuticals, ultimately uncovering the existence of the replimoids. When Kapetria tells her story, she and Fareed speculate on what it may be able to reveal about Amel's form, and how it affects the biology of vampires. When Louis theorizes a plan to sever vampires from the Sacred Core by stopping their hearts, Fareed is consulted and is enthusiastic about the idea, cutting short the debate about who to use as a test subject by abruptly injecting himself with a substance to stop his own heart, proving the theory. Fareed oversees the experiment to stop and restart Lestat's heart, breaking the bonds between vampires and Amel, then divides his time between Paris and the Court in Auvergne, trying to find a way to remove Amel from Lestat.
In Blood Communion, Fareed is focusing his research into trying to track and document all members of the vampire tribe through interviews and building digital records of family trees. When Gabrielle, Louis, and Marius are found alive with their necks twisted after the death of Rhoshamandes, Fareed is consulted to ensure they can be healed without damage. By the end of the novel, he has estimated that approximately 3,000 vampires exist, and has collected records of around 2,000 of them.