Former actress and Union Minister of Minority Affairs Smriti Irani recently recalled an uncomfortable incident from her days of shooting the daily soap, ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’.
Smriti, who also holds the Ministry of Women and Child Development portfolio, shared that she was called to work on the sets of her hit show a day after she suffered miscarriage.
At that time, she was also working on another show ‘Ramayan’ directed by Ravi Chopra.
Smriti’s co-actor from ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ told producer Ekta Kapoor that she was lying following which Smriti showed up at Ekta’s office with her medical documents.
She told Neelesh Misra on ‘The Slow Interview’: “I was not aware that I am pregnant. I was on the set (of ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’) and I told them I am not well enough to shoot and asked to be allowed to go home. But still, I worked, and by the time they let me go, it was evening already. The doctor suggested, I go for a sonography. On my way, I started bleeding, and I remember it was raining. I stopped an auto and asked the driver to take me to the hospital. When I reached the hospital, a nurse came running, asking for an autograph… all while I was bleeding. I signed an autograph, and then asked her, ‘admit kar loge? I think I have suffered a miscarriage’.”
She shared that pushing the schedule of ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ was easier as the space could be filled by 50 other important characters unlike ‘Ramayan’ in which she played Goddess Lakshmi as well as Sita. When Smriti told Ravi Chopra about her situation, he advised her to take a rest.
She said: “He told me, ‘tumhara dimag kharab hai’ (Are you out of your mind)? Do you know how it feels to lose a child, you have just gone through that. Kal aane ki zaroorat nahi (No need to come tomorrow).”
“I, however, pushed and told him that it’s a Sunday episode and (the character) Sita can’t be replaced,” to which the director replied that he will manage.
The next day after her hospitalisation, Smriti returned on the sets of ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ where she found that a co-actor had told the producer that she was lying about her miscarriage.
Smriti said: “The person didn’t realise that I have returned because I needed money to pay EMIs for my house. The next day, I took all my medical papers to Ekta to tell her it is not a drama. She got uncomfortable and told me not to show the papers. I told her, ‘foetus bacha nahi, warna woh bhi dikha deti’ (I would have shown you the foetus also had it been there).”
