MUMBAI: Mahima Chaudhary made a succesful debut opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Pardes and quickly became India’s darling. She was a model already but it was Ganga, her character of a desi girl, that brought her stardom.

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Mahima Chaudhry was a VJ on music channels when she was noticed by Pardes director, Subhash Ghai and became a lead actor in the film. But before his debut film, the actor got a new identity as Mahima Chaudhary.

Mahima’s real name is Ritu Chaudhry, but she changed it because of Subhash Ghai’s superstition. He believed in launching actresses whose name’s initial start with the letter ‘M’. 

Meenakshi Sheshadri, Manisha Koirala, and Madhuri Dixit were a few actresses who worked with Subhash Ghai. Therefore, she changed her name to Mahima Chaudhry.

After her powerful debut, Mahima also won hearts with her roles in films like Daag, Dhadkan, Kurukshetra, Dil Kya Kare, Lajja and many. Mahima’s career could have been a very smooth one thereafter but life had different plans.

The actor who was at the height of her popularity, mysteriously faded from Bollywood. Mahima Chaudhry once opened up about her career-threatening accident, after which she was branded ‘scarface’.

It was in 1999 when Mahima Chaudhary was shooting for the film Dil Kya Kare with Ajay Devgn and Kajol when her car rammed into a truck in Bangalore. Multiple pieces of glass had to be removed from her face as a result of the horrific accident.

Mahima told Bollywood Bubble, “It was the last day of the shoot in Bangalore… an early morning shoot. I sat in the car. A milk truck was coming from the wrong side and it rammed into my car. The glass pieces came like bullets into my face.”

“I thought I was dying, and at that point, no one even helped me get to the hospital. It was only after reaching the hospital, much later, when my mother came, Ajay came and they went to discuss. I got up and saw my face in the mirror and saw the horror. When they did the surgery on me, they took out 67 glass pieces,” shared Mahima, speaking to Pinkvilla.

Mahima had to let go of a lot of films on her kitty during that time because of her accident.

Mahima did not reveal details of the incident back then as she feared people would not be supportive. “If at that time, I had discussed it and said that I had cut myself like this, they would have said… ‘oh, iska toh chehra kharab ho gaya (her face is ruined), let’s sign someone else’. ”

While recalling how she was branded ‘scarface’ after the accident, Mahima once shared with tears, “When I had my accident, they came on the sets when nobody was allowed. They took a shot from far because I still had scars. They put a picture of me on a magazine’s cover and wrote ‘Mahima had an accident. She’s got scars all over the face. We can actually call her scarface.’ It still hurts me.”

Mahima admitted that it was actor Ajay Devgn who tried to make her feel comfortable after the accident. “Ajay was like I get scars like this all the time. He was a very generous producer. He took care of me,” she said.

Mahima elaborated “When I went on the set, I was hiding the left side of my face because the scars were visible. The director kept bringing the camera closer. It is one of those things that stays with you. Ajay looked at me and asked ‘You are not ready?’ He told the director to let it be and told him ‘let’s not do this, give her time.’ He explained to the director that I am still not over the accident.”

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She also recalled having no hopes of a comeback to cinema and said, “I was preparing for a life without cinema. I was learning how to cope up with it. Anything that happened post that was just God’s gift.”

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Credits - The Indian Express