Anu Aggarwal captured hearts along with her iconic Bollywood movie “Aashiqui” (1990). On this Well being Photographs She Slays interview, she talks about how her life took a flip when she met a brutal automotive accident.
Again within the Nineteen Nineties, Anu Aggarwal set Bollywood abuzz with an unforgettable debut in ‘Aashiqui’. This romantic musical blockbuster movie made a mannequin and video jockey an in a single day star. Anu was not typical by Bollywood’s magnificence requirements. However her rawness introduced a breath of freshness to the display screen and the trade. She featured in a number of films, however her profession was minimize quick when she realised that appearing was not her forte. She turned drawn to yoga, steadily fading away from the glitz and glamour of showbiz. Whereas the ‘Aashiqui’ fandom saved her alive within the viewers’s coronary heart, Anu Aggarwal’s life took an sudden and unlucky flip with an accident that modified all the things for her. Now, 25 years later, she says her optimistic pondering has saved her miraculously alive.
In 1999, whereas driving again house from a celebration in Mumbai, 30-year-old Anu met with a severe automotive accident. She ended up with a number of bone fractures, touchdown in coma for 29 days. When she lastly awakened, she had no reminiscence of her previous life. Half her physique was left paralysed and it took her years to get well fully. After 2001, Anu selected to reside a monk’s life for the subsequent six years. She found the wonders of yoga, self-love and self-awareness. At 55 in the present day, she is drawn to the appearing occupation as soon as once more.
On this Well being Photographs She Slays interview, Anu Aggarwal opens up about her childhood, her rebirth within the Nineteen Nineties and life in her 50s.
Anu Aggarwal’s childhood diaries
The tendencies of an grownup are principally first seen when she or he is a toddler. It was the identical with Anu. “As a tiny woman of three years previous, I used to be already selecting up my mom’s bag (bigger than me) and strolling the street alone. When a useful uncle noticed me wrestle to cross the street, he requested ‘The place are you going?’ I, like a grown-up mentioned, ‘to do buying’! A humanitarian fellow, he fortunately introduced me safely again house. My mom had missed a heartbeat by then,” Anu recounts. That turned her first step in the direction of all the time doing the sudden, being fearless and stepping out of her consolation zone all through her life.
A tryst with Bollywood
Entering into Bollywood was additionally unintentional. Her modelling assignments in India and overseas led her on this path. Regardless of the style of success, she has all the time been open about how she by no means felt she belonged within the movie trade. Anu lived alone in Mumbai and had her personal struggles whereas juggling her life as an actor. In her guide, Anusual: Memoir of a Woman Who Got here Again from the Useless, she referred to as her movie profession the “unhappiest time” of her life.
Additionally Learn
“Whereas I used to be all the time grateful for sudden stardom, I wasn’t ready for its depth. Nonetheless, the mixture of my appearing abilities and the movie’s immense success ensured I used to be taken severely within the trade. My unhappiness throughout that point was extra in regards to the darkish facet of Bollywood than my private struggles,” Anu says looking back.
She discovered herself at odds with the stereotypes prevalent in Bollywood. “Overdone and loud appearing, hideous costume and vogue sense, outrageous white over-the-top make-up, ‘heroines’ sporting falsies in loud and greasy merchandise numbers, and so forth, in look and appearing. I may have nonetheless been fantastic with the truth that alarming fee of illiteracy that was weeping into numerous the members of the movie fraternity, had I come throughout the ‘artwork of Filmmaking’. That was deeply missing. Creativity, I believe, needs to be the boon of the leisure enterprise in costume, act, and elegance. However filmmaking (then) didn’t appear to have it. Aashiqui’s look got here throughout as a uncooked and breathtaking fashion,” she says with out mincing her phrases.
Why did Anu Aggarwal depart the leisure trade?
“When folks style success, it’s straightforward to get sucked into the spiral of stardom. However I opted out of it and greater than ever, I wanted to know myself higher. I wished to know ‘me’, which is past my position as an actor. I discovered reduction in yoga and my effort in the present day is to awaken as many individuals as potential to this concept of dwelling a life,” she provides.
Additionally learn: Yoga is the key to Rakul Preet Singh’s sanity!
Choose Subjects of your curiosity and allow us to customise your feed.
PERSONALISE NOW
The world modified additional for her after her life-threatening accident. She was left with extreme accidents, together with fractures and intensive facial injury, and slipped into coma. Earlier than the accident, Anu used to reside in an ashram, the place she had a non secular identify. When she awakened from the coma, she says she knew nothing however her non secular identify.
“I discovered myself embarking on a journey from self-made to self-healed. As my physique lay damaged after the accident, I dove deep into the realms of the spirit and felt a deep sense of compassion for others. I realised that we’re all interconnected, a part of one common household – Vasudev Kutumbakam. Regardless of the formidable hurdles that stood in my path to restoration, I remained decided. Immediately, in opposition to all odds, I stand as a dwelling testomony to the miraculous energy of resilience and religion,” Anu says.
Life as a monk
In 2001, she took sanyas within the mountains and saved her head shaved. She lived with one bag, in humble environment, merely learning the thoughts and human psychology. She remembers the time as “very peaceable” when she learnt from Adi Shankaracharya’s teachings. One large lesson was about letting go of attachments to materials issues and specializing in gaining information and managing the thoughts, a basic facet of monkhood that resonated deeply along with her.
“Residing a lifetime of simplicity with minimal possessions and needs revealed the true worth of the issues we regularly cherish in metropolis life. Now, after I converse at well being conferences and share my yoga program, Anufun, I’m pushed by a need to offer again to society, a price I realized as a monk. This sense of giving makes me really feel fulfilled and motivates me to do my greatest,” says Anu.
Yoga proved to be therapeutic whereas coping with trauma after the incident. It marked a profound shift in her life — “a whole 360-degree flip” in Anu’s life’s trajectory, main her to a journey of self-discovery.
This additionally turned instrumental in serving to her construct a optimistic relationship along with her physique. Requested a couple of piece of recommendation she would give folks battling physique picture points, she mentioned, “At the beginning, it’s a must to settle for your self the best way you’re and that’s what I did. Till we absolutely embrace our price, sensuality, sexuality, and confidence, we are able to’t actually reside life to its fullest, irrespective of how wealthy we’re. Moreover, fostering a optimistic mindset not solely reduces the chance of stress and despair but in addition extends lifespan, improves coping mechanisms, and enhances psychological and non secular well-being.”
Anu Aggarwal on the ability of optimistic pondering
Constructive pondering, she asserts, can manifest goals into actuality. She has witnessed it firsthand when she encountered minor accidents on set throughout her shoots. “I persevered, by no means taking a break day on account of my unwavering perception in my restoration. Immediately, I credit score my optimistic outlook for my continued well-being,” she provides.
She hopes to return to appearing as soon as extra – one thing she has all the time been captivated with.
“I’ve a deep ardour for appearing, rooted in my identification as an artist throughout the leisure world. Whereas some could label me as India’s first supermodel, I by no means aimed for that title. One thing inside me, possibly destiny or karma, saved pulling me in the direction of fame. I didn’t need to strive exhausting to be glamorous, it simply got here naturally. No matter my appearing abilities, I modified the definition of a heroine as a result of I used to be too tall, too dusky, and a supermodel (again then supermodels weren’t welcome in Bollywood). However I felt there was extra to discover past simply stardom, so I studied yoga and naturopathy and even turned a monk.”
Now’s the correct time to be again!
“Coming again took longer and was harder than I anticipated, however I’m lastly previous that now. It’s not stunning that I’m drawn again to modeling and appearing—the place I began. And with altering instances, it seems like the correct second to dive again in, refreshed and prepared for my second probability since 1999,” she provides.
