Smriti Irani was called to work day after miscarriage, nurse asked for autograph

Actor-politician Smriti Irani recently opened up about being called to work just a day after she suffered a miscarriage. She said she had shown her medical papers to Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi producer Ekta Kapoor who was told by a co-actor that Smriti was lying. Smriti was also working for the TV series Ramayan whose director Ravi Chopra asked her to take a rest instead of coming to work. Also read: Smriti Irani shares pic with Bill Gates from India trip

Smriti rose to fame after starring in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi as iconic Tulsi Virani. In Ramayan, she appeared as Devi Lakshmi as well as Sita. In a recent interview, Smriti talked about how she learnt a lesson about humanity when she had her miscarriage. She said she wasn’t aware of her pregnancy and felt unwell while working.

She told Neelesh Misra on The Slow Interview in Hindi, “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. I reached the hospital, a nurse came running to ask for an autograph, while I was bleeding. I gave her the autograph, and asked her, ‘Admit kar loge, I think I am miscarrying.’”

She pointed out it was easier to push the schedule of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi as there were 50 other important characters to fill in. However, it wasn’t the same with Ramayan where the show was to revolve around her. Smriti recalled getting a call from the Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi team who asked her to return to work despite her telling them that she wasn’t well and had a miscarriage.

She was working double shifts, starting with Ravi Chopra’s Ramayan followed by Balaji’s show. When Smriti told Ravi Chopra about her situation, he firmly told her to take a rest. “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 pushed and said, ‘Ravi ji Sunday ka episode hai, Sita replace nahi ho sakti (It’s Sunday’s episode, you can’t shoot around me)… He said, ‘Main kar lunga (I will manage),” Smriti shared.

When Smriti told Ravi Chopra that she will be returning to work for Ekta Kapoor’s Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, the Ramayan director told her to use his shift to sleep and rest instead. The next day after her hospitalisation, Smriti returned to Ekta’s show and found that a co-actor had told the producer that her miscarriage wasn’t real. 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).”