‘Acting is a karmic skill I was born with,’ says Aashiqui girl Anu Aggarwal

Can you share details of the car accident which put you in coma for 29 days?

It was a near-death experience. The question was not about recovering from several multiple fractures and brain hemorrhage, but whether I would survive. I woke up from a 29-day coma, was on a wheelchair, and partially paralysed. Nobody thought I would ever stand up. Most cases of this nature don’t survive.

There were reports that you left the industry because of that accident. Is it true?

No. The accident was not the reason for leaving the entertainment business. I had that accident in 1999 and I was out of the industry way before that.

You had a modelling background. Did it help you in getting film projects?

Supermodels were not welcome in Bollywood then, so in a sense I was breaking the mould. I was too tall, too dusky, too humorous, too supermodel in fashion, too independent and too blunt. I was not in any way the quintessential heroine material. Regardless, my acting skills worked and I ended up as an iconic figure, a self-made success story.

How easy or difficult it has been for you to live life on your own terms?

To live according to one’s own principles, and not to bow down to expectations of society is not easy for anyone. But that has always been my approach. When I acted as the vulnerable girl in Aashiqui, or the psycho killer in Khalnaika, I followed the same principle though I could not define it then.

From an actor to a yogini, how did this transformation happen?

With a superstar young achiever status, I was facing the dark night of the soul. Ironically, when the world thought I had everything, I was the unhappiest ever. In 1994, I stopped signing new films. I yearned to self-develop as I had achieved all there could be in Bollywood. So, I ended up joining a yoga institute in 1997. That is what transformed me into a yogini.

Are you still in touch with people from the industry?

Not much but I am just a phone call away. This industry, apart from making me a ‘one-film wonder’, acted as the catalyst for my biggest transformation. I have been following a different path, especially after I became a monk in 2001. I shaved my head and lived with two loose clothes by the Ganga. I studied the nature of the mind, watched it 24/7 and made friends with my mind.

How have yoga and spirituality helped you?

Transformation. Transcendence. Joy. Compassion. Caring not just for my own but all.

On the personal front, you have been single for a while. Do you miss having a companion?

I have been too much of my own person, practising self-love, totally on the upward swing, creative, innovative and compassionate. You are born alone and that is how you are going to die. When I truly understood this truth, it calmed me and changed my viewpoint.

Do you want to get back to acting again?

There is no getting back. I never left. Acting is a karmic skill I was born with. Currently, it is such an exciting time in the entertainment biz with all the different mediums. I am open to the idea of acting again but it will depend upon the role.