Kamal Ghorui
Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt and his wife Shwetambari Bhatt were arrested by the Rajasthan Police in Mumbai on December 7, 2025, in connection with a Rs 30 crore cheating case, before being granted bail in February 2026. Months later, Vikram shared a deeply personal account of his time in custody, recalling a frightening health scare during his stay at Udaipur Central Jail.In a note posted on Instagram on April 14, Bhatt described how his condition worsened amid the harsh winter. About three weeks into his incarceration, he woke up one night in Barrack No. 10 with severe fever and uncontrollable shivering. Despite wrapping himself in four blankets, the chills didn’t subside. Fellow inmates tried to help by arranging additional blankets, while he took a paracetamol, hoping for relief, but the fever persisted.Detailing his experience further, he wrote, “The next morning I went to the prison hospital. They had no thermometer. They checked my oxygen and said I was fine. I told them they must be joking. I suffer from axial spondylarthritis, an autoimmune condition, and high fever can be dangerous for me. The doctor finally wrote a note allowing me to be taken to a hospital. But no one came.”He went on to describe the delays that followed: “First, the police were busy protecting a VIP. Then they were busy managing a tribal fair. Day after day I waited in the barrack. My days were filled with pain. My nights with fever.”Realising that help wasn’t arriving anytime soon, Bhatt said he took matters into his own hands. He cut out oil and salt from his diet, drank plenty of water, and turned to prayer, sitting before a painting of the Devi in the barrack. “I said, ‘If you exist… if my prayers to you have ever meant anything… show me a miracle. I don’t want to die here. My children need me. My wife needs me. My 90-year-old father needs me’,” Bhatt recalled.According to him, things gradually began to improve. The fever started to subside, the pain eased, and he slowly regained strength. One morning, overwhelmed with gratitude, he looked at the Devi’s image and said, “Thank you for giving me my life.” It was only fifteen days later that police personnel finally arrived to take him to a hospital.Reflecting on the ordeal, Bhatt shared a conversation he had afterward with an officer. “Later I asked an officer what they would have done if it had been an emergency. He said casually, ‘Oh, then we would have sent you with the prison guards.’ So they could have sent me all along. Maybe they chose not to. Or maybe God wanted me to learn something first. So when people say there is no God, I don’t argue. I simply smile. Because some miracles are only visible to the person who needed them,” he concluded.
