Parul escapes near death...

by Meenakshi Shankar

Aug 04, 2008, Mumbai

Adding to the long unending list of our telly actors who are over worked and pushed to the limits, Parul Chauhan, the parallel lead of Star Plus's popular Sapna Babul Ka...Bidaai collapsed on the sets of Bidaai whilst she was shooting for a dance sequence around the popular Hindi number, "Saazish hai boondo ki" from Faana.

We caught up with the recuperating actress and she sounded peppy and limping back into normalcy. She said, " It has been back to back shooting schedules and impossible deadlines and I have been surviving on barely three-four hours of sleep. Neck deep in work, the last thing on my mind was catching up on regular meals, which I know is the cardinal sin. I should have made time to catch up on my sleep, but when work rules the roost, everything else takes a back seat."

Talking about her fatal accident, she said, "The last one week was chaos, madness and mayhem personified. I had wrapped up my Star Plus's Rang De Independence shoot where I am co-hosting the show with Sara and rushed to the Sapna Babul Ka …Bidaai shoot. It was a rain sequence and I was shooting the number. I wasn't keeping good health when I reached the shoot, but it was the last day of the rain sequence and I wanted to can the episode. But, the combination of lack of sleep, lack of food and the stress of completing the shoot did leave me in a state of tizzy. And before I knew it, I was reeling under the arch lights and collapsed on the ground. I barely missed hitting my head on the moving trolley which would have been fatal."

It's a miracle that I didn't hit my head on the trolley. For a minute or so, nobody on the sets moved. Everyone was in a state of shock and when they kicked themselves into action, they rushed me into the dressing room and force-fed me some juice. I have heard of actors being pushed to limits, but I didn't expect I would ever come face to face with the harsh reality. The production house has been fantastic. And as an actor, I have never really pushed myself to impossible shooting schedules like my coterie.

And the near fatal death experience actually has taught me a thing or two about taking things easy. There's a luxury of not being involved in a whole lot of projects. I'm taking a couple of days off and putting up my feet and watching the world go by."