Kamal Ghorui
Fatima Sana Shaikh has often spoken about living with epilepsy, hoping that sharing her experiences will help create awareness around the neurological condition. In a recent conversation with Soha Ali Khan on her podcast, the actress opened up about the first time she experienced a seizure and how she was eventually diagnosed while shooting for Dangal.Recalling her earliest memory of a seizure, Fatima admitted that she remembers very little about the episode itself.“I have no memory. I just remember feeling a lot of fear and passing out and ending up in the hospital,” she said. The actor shared that one of the incidents happened while she was attending a dance class.“I was dancing and I passed out, I was getting a seizure. One of the girls kept her hand in my mouth — you know how people say ‘chamach daalo’ and all that — so she put her hand in and I bit her. Apparently she was bleeding,” Fatima recalled.When she regained consciousness, she found herself in a hospital surrounded by people. “I woke up and there were 10 people looking at me. I was disoriented. I didn’t recognise anyone and I started crying,” she said.Fatima also revealed that at the time, the episode was misunderstood by a doctor. “The doctor said, ‘Oh, this is for attention.’ They told my parents maybe there was some drug use. I was 15, so it was traumatic.”
‘I told them mujhe seizure aane wala hai’
Years later, while training for Dangal, Fatima began experiencing what are known as “auras,” which often precede seizures.“Woh time pe mujhe auras aate the, but mujhe nahi pata tha ki auras kya hote hain,” she said. “There would be this light hovering on one side, usually the right side, and it would slowly grow bigger and bigger. Then there is fear — that this thing is there and I don’t know when it will take over.”Fatima said she experienced this sensation several times during the shoot before a seizure eventually occurred on set.“I was training and it came. I kept saying, ‘Nahi, nahi, kuchh nahi hoga.’ But it kept increasing. So I told the people around me, ‘Mujhe seizure aane wala hai.’ Nobody knew what it was. Mujhe bhi nahi pata tha,” she said.She added that the team quickly stepped in to help after realising something was wrong.“Luckily Aamir Khan was there, Sanya Malhotra was there and our trainer Kripa Shankar Bishnoi was there. They quickly Googled it and kept me aside,” Fatima recalled. “Eventually, the production decided they had to figure out what this was because a lot was riding on me and the film.”
‘The medication made me feel like I was under the influence’
Following the incident, Fatima was taken to a neurologist and underwent multiple tests.“They did MRIs, EEG, everything. The doctor put me on medication,” she said. However, the treatment initially had severe side effects.“It felt like I was under the influence. I couldn’t walk straight, everything felt wonky. I was feeling very depressive and angry all the time. I felt very alienated,” Fatima shared.The actor eventually stopped taking the medication without informing anyone because she found it difficult to continue working.“I had to wrestle and function, so I stopped taking it. But whenever I would get an aura, I would go to the bathroom, lock myself inside, lie on my side and hope it would pass and nobody would find out,” she said. Fatima revealed that this struggle continued for several years before things stabilised. “It went on for a good four years,” she added.On the work front, Fatima is reportedly set to star in the courtroom drama series Nyaya, directed by Karan Kapadia and Nitya Mehra, which is also rumoured to feature Aneet Padda.
