Exclusive! Paralysed ‘Fan’ actress Shikha Malhotra speaks, “I am under acute stress”: The first interview from hospital | Hindi Movie News

‘Fan’ actress Shikha Malhotra has just been wheeled out from the ICU into a private room of KEM hospital (Parel) and somehow spoke to ETimes exclusively. Her letter to a section of the media had made news yesterday that she has suffered a stroke. In a feeble voice, she said, “I was very stressed since the longest time that I acted in a film called ‘Kaanchli’ and hardly anybody saw it. It had a limited release in theatres and I was dying to see it release on OTT. ‘Kaanchli’ had me in a lead role. Lekin OTT ka nahin hua. Suddenly, I felt sometime in October that I had too much pain in the legs and was sneezing too frequently. I tested for COVID-19 and my worst fears came true.”

While in ‘Fan’ Shikha played a TV anchor, she played Taapsee Panu‘s senior in college in ‘Running Shaadi’. And how did she get COVID? Any chance that she can trace back? “Well, my mother was a nurse and I had also become a nurse in Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care Hospital (Jogeshwari) for six months after COVID infiltrated in March 2020. It must be obviously because I came in contact with a lot of COVID patients.”

Shikha’s condition worsened almost immediately. “My sugar level dropped to 26, the normal level should be 100. I had no strength in my body and my oxygen levels went drastically down. I was on artificial oxygen for 10 days. Somehow I recovered and came home.”

“And just when I was forgetting my COVID trauma, on December 10, I felt that I had no strength in the right side of my body from head to toe. And worse still, my jaw was turning distorted. I could sense it was paralysis. I was once again in the hospital.

It is only today after 11-days of hospitalisation that I am able to talk a bit. I might be discharged soon now as I have been moved out of the ICU just a few hours ago. I am still unable to walk or raise my hand freely, but the physio therapy is working aur kuch jaan phir se aa rahi hai.”

Shikha laments, “I wish I get more work. I don’t know how to reach the big producers in Bollywood. I am very keen to make it. Pray for me and through your platform, I wish to tell the readers to please see ‘Kaanchli’.”