‘Couldn’t get out of bed, cried when...’ Fatima Sana Shaikh opens up about living with epilepsy

Fatima Sana Shaikh, who will next appear in ‘Metro… In Dino’, has spoken candidly about her experience living with epilepsy. In a conversation with Humans of Bombay, the actor recalled a particularly distressing episode during a flight to the United States.

“I had a major episode when I had multiple seizures. I was travelling to the USA, and it was a flight via Dubai. I had seizures on the flight. Then I was taken to the airport hospital, I was given medication, but even then my seizures didn’t stop. They then gave me a very high dose (of medication),” Fatima shared.

The episode left her physically and emotionally drained, and she was forced to cancel two film shoots.

“I was on different chemicals. I was working on two different films then, and I had to cancel shoots. I couldn’t get out of bed and cried when someone called for a shoot. My emotions were all over the place. I was like, ‘This is my reality now,’” she said.

“At that time, I accepted that this is my disease, and people also should know about it as it will help others.”

Fatima also highlighted the lack of awareness and support around epilepsy, especially for children from underprivileged backgrounds.

“There are kids who have multiple seizures in a day… It’s heartbreaking. They don’t get perks that fall under the special needs category in education. I also understood that much later,” she said.

She added, “Imagine the ones who are underprivileged. They’ve no access to education and even to medicines. There’s a lot of stigma attached to it (epilepsy). I have some (fan) following, so I can say that if I can use that in some way, then that’s completely okay.”

On the big screen

Fatima will next be seen in ‘Metro… In Dino’, directed by Anurag Basu. The ensemble cast includes Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Ali Fazal, Anupam Kher, Pankaj Tripathi, Konkona Sen Sharma and Neena Gupta. The film is set to release on 4 July.