New Delhi: Actress Mahima Chaudhry made a sensational entry into Bollywood in the 1997 launch Pardes. Directed by Subhash Ghai, the movie was a large hit starring Shah Rukh Khan and Apurva Agnihotri in the lead roles. Mahima turned an in a single day star.
After reaching the heights of stardom, Mahima Chaudhry met with an untoward accident that modified her life. In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, Mahima opened up on her horrific road accident. She mentioned, “It was the last day of the shoot in Banglore, and I was going to the school where the shoot was. It was early morning, normally you get staff to be in the car ahead of you or behind you. I was ready at 5.30 am and I was supposed to be there at 7 am. I told my staff to leave before me, otherwise, people will think I’m not ready. But, my mother asked ‘Why can’t you go if you’re ready?’ Then I sat in the car and left, but by that time, my staff had already left.”
“A dhood wala truck was coming from the wrong side, we were going roundabout. So, the truck came and smashed my car in the roundabout. The truck came and rammed into me, so, the glass came like bullets and splinters into my face all over. The pieces of glass did not hit me anywhere else, I did not break my bones. It was only my face.”
Adding extra, she mentioned, “That is the one time I noticed my father cry, who got here a day after the surgical procedure was executed. It is after the surgical procedure that the devastation exhibits and the swelling occurs. My dad simply sat subsequent to me and took a deep sigh. My dad could be very robust, and I’m extra near him. But this time he simply sat and he couldn’t maintain it. He mentioned, ‘Sirf chehre pe laga hai. Why her?”
Mahima Chaudhry additionally praised her co-star Ajay Devgn and Kajol. “Ajay and Kajol, who were the producers, sought that nobody came to know about it, because at that time, it would have devastated my career. I thought I would never make a comeback, it would never heal, and I would never look normal. But Ajay was like I get scars like this all the time. I was like he is being nice because he does not want me to lose heart. But, actually, he was right. He was a very generous producer, he looked after everything.”
Talking about her battle to make a comeback after the traumatic accident, Mahima Chaudhry mentioned, “The first time when I faced the camera, it was another guest appearance with Ajay in another film and that director was not aware. I very gently told him, can you just do long shots, and he agreed. I was hiding the left side of my face as it was hurt. And when I was giving long shots, suddenly, he just kept bringing the camera closer and closer. It’s one of the things that stays with you and you can imagine if I’m still hurting what it felt it, and I couldn’t keep a straight face back then.”
Ajay Devgn seen her discomfort and requested, “You’re not ready?’, and Mahima said no. The actress added that Ajay told everyone to just let me be. Then he told the director, ‘Why? She is just getting off this accident, it’s ok things can wait.’ So the director said that the set will have to be dismantled and Ajay said ‘ok’.”
“I remember post that, the director went and told everyone that Ajay Devgn is in love with me and there were rumours in the magazines that I was seeing Ajay Devgn. That made me even more uncomfortable. He had just gotten married sometime back when we were doing Dil Kya Kare and that film was not even complete when they got married.”
Mahima Chaudhry labored with Ajay Devgn in ‘Dil Kya Kare’ which starred Kajol as nicely. It launched in 1999.
