Javed Akhtar on his initial reaction after Shabana Azmi’s accident: ‘Is she alive?’

Veteran Indian actor Shabana Azmi had recently gone through a harrowing road accident that left fans and well-wishers taken aback.

Detailing the horrific moment when his wife was fighting for her life, Javed Akhtar, famed lyricist and poet, told Film Companion’s Anupama Chopra what his initial thoughts had been after the accident. 

“Who could think we would have such a calamity. The accident that Shabana went through was really deadly. We were in the other car, she was sleeping in the car behind us and when this accident occurred and we went back, the first thought was ‘Is she alive?’”

“Because the whole car was crushed, had become a heap of junk. Somehow we took her out, she was unconscious with blood all over her face and it was only from the nose. There were no wounds but the whole body has taken such a whiplash, that it will take a little time to be totally normal,” he said.

Earlier this year in January, Shabana sustained serious injuries in a road accident on the Mumbai-Pune Express Highway.

The actor was travelling with her husband, Javed Akhtar, when their car bumped into a truck enroute Pune around 3.30 PM. Shortly after, she was rushed to the MGM hospital in Panvel.