Mahima Chaudhry recalled how she requested her ‘Dil Kya Kare’ co-star Ajay Devgn and director Prakash Jha to keep the news of her accident a secret as she feared that it would affect her career.
Mahima Chaudhry made an impressive debut with Subhash Ghai’s Pardes (1997) in which she was paired opposite Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The actress had a bright future ahead when two years later, she met with a life-threatening accident when she was filming for Prakash Jha’s Dil Kya Kare, co-starring Ajay Devgn and Kajol.
The actress was on her way to shoot when a truck, carrying milk cans, coming from the wrong side rammed into her car and severely injured. Recently in an interview with Radio Nasha, Mahima recalled that unfortunate incident and shared that 67 pieces of glass were taken out from her face. The actress said that she didn’t realise that she had several cuts on her face when the accident happened.
The ‘Kurukshetra’ actress said, “I found later when I went to the bathroom and saw the mirror. Before that, I was telling Prakash ji (Prakash Jha, director) that if nothing has happened, let’s shoot. Because doctors were done with the scans etc. He said, ‘No no, let’s wait, we’ll just go out and talk about dates.’ When I saw my face, I realised that my face is injured.”
Mahima then went on to talk about how she requested her co-star and producer of the film, Ajay Devgn and director Prakash Jha not to tell anyone about her accident as she feared that she might get banished from the film industry if the news leaked out.
She said, “When Ajay and Prakash ji came back, my first thing was ‘please don’t tell anyone that I have gone through this. Let me at least try and see what I can salvage my career with.’ It is just immense that no one from the production never told anyone. 20 years later, I told the story and that’s when people got to know. It is commendable. I used to go on set and everyone could see it.”
Mahima even recalled how a film magazine printed her photo that they clicked secretly and called her ‘scarface’.
She had also signed a film with late director Satish Kaushik and actor Anil Kapoor but she walked out of that. The actress said that when Anil visited her home, she pretended that she had broken her foot so she didn’t want to open up on her accident. She said that it was very tough for her as she was quite young when she went through this ordeal.
The ‘Lajja’ star admitted that back then, she believed that she would never come out of the accident even when Ajay assured her that things would be fine post surgeries, adding that she was even thinking of other career options.
Talking about how the accident left an impact on her, Mahima revealed that even today, one of her eyes is smaller than the other. Elaborating on how ‘stressful’ it was for her back then, she shared that she never faced the camera straight, and would always angle her face a bit.
The actress said that if the same thing happened today, she would be hailed as a hero. and the industry would be supportive but back them, things were different.
After her career-threatening accident in 1999, Mahima met with another scary event when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022. However, the actress emerged victorious over the Big C.
On the film front, Mahima will next be seen in Kangana Ranaut starrer Emergency.
