lost her eyesight for shooting for CID

Shilpa Shinde loses eyesight

She was playing a blind girl when her eye began to hurt

Reena Thapar Kapoor

It's a case of reel life spilling over into real life. When television actress Shilpa Shinde started shooting for an episode of CID, little did she know that she would lose her eyesight. Ironic as it may sound, the role she was playing in the serial was that of a blind girl. "My right eye was already hurting by the time I began shooting for the episode," recalls Shinde who has done cameos in Sanjeevani, Bhabhi and Kabhi Aaye Na Judaai. By the time she wound up her day's work and reached home, the pain became unbearable. She continues: "My right eye turned red and was continuously watering. But it was too late in the night to visit the doctor. So I had to wait till the next morning to get it examined."

According to medical reports, Shinde is suffering from 'eye haemorrhage'. This means that she will not be able to see anything from her right eye for the next month or so.

Shinde further says, "Initially I didn't take it too seriously. I'd never heard of eye haemorrhage. So I thought it was a mere infection that would be cured in a day or two. But thanks to my carelessness, I am as good as blind in my right eye. Now the infection is spreading to the left eye too and I am really worried."

As for her CID shoot, it was completed by her body double. She plays a pivotal role in the Rakesh Bedi starrer Bechara Big B on Zee Smile. There, they had to change the script and chop off her role temporarily. "I've been advised bed rest and am not supposed to step out during the day," she says.

Shinde says that she is under medical observation and will take about a month to recover. "It is a bizarre coincidence that I was playing a blind girl when all this happened. It has changed my perception as an actor because playing a blind girl is fine, but becoming one in real life is really traumatic," she concludes.