EXCLUSIVE| Rakul Preet Singh on her back injury: I felt like my lower body detached from my upper body
In October, right around her birthday, Rakul Preet Singh shared an update with her fans on Instagram that she has suffered a back injury due to which she was on bed rest. By Diwali, the actor was back on her feet, but she reveals to us that she is still not fully recovered and her healing is still in progress. “I’m better now. I’m recovering by the day but it’s just slow progress,” she says.
Sharing how the injury happened, Rakul informs, “I lifted a very heavy 80 kg deadlift on October 5. I felt the pain coming on my tailbone, but I didn’t stop which was my biggest mistake. I completed my workout and went straight to shoot. By evening, I had a very terrible spasm that I couldn’t even wear my own clothes as I couldn’t bend forward. Thinking of it as a spasm, I kept shooting with that pain and it aggravated so much by 10th that as I was getting ready for my birthday party, I felt like my lower body detached from my upper body. I fainted with that pain and my BP dropped. I was put on bed and then I was on bed for 10 days. Not bed rest, I was bedridden.”
The actor adds that her husband, producer Jackky Bhagnani had planned a special sundowner birthday party for her but she never could even see it. “Jackky had decorated everything, and he said I’ll get to see it all when I come up for the birthday party. But the unfortunate thing was, I couldn’t come up. I had my injury an hour before the birthday, so I could never see it.”
Through this hard time, Rakul insists that Jackky has been her rock: “It’s important for a partner to understand not just physically what you’re going through, but for a workaholic like me, it takes a lot of mental toll also. It wasn’t just for 10 days as even now, I’m still not a 100% fine. There are days that you still feel that ‘will I be okay, will I be able to run and sprint and do everything that I was doing before’. It’s important for a partner to give you that space to feel vulnerable. And with Jackky, the great thing is that he can make a joke out of anything. He can handle the toughest situation in the lightest way.”
Giving an example, she shares, “About 2 weeks back I had taken my first flight and when I came back, I was really low and fatigued. I was very vulnerable and started crying, and he said, ‘Mubarak ho, ab tum ladki ban gayi ho,’ in a funny way because I generally don’t cry. When you know that person can make you laugh in any weakest moment, that’s important. I’m so glad and grateful that I get that from Jackky.”
The injury has given her a perspective: “It’s a lesson. When I had this spasm, I thought your mind is stronger than your body. I didn’t pay attention to it till my body stopped. So, it’s a lesson learned that sometimes I just got to go easy sometimes.” Ask her about her recovery and Singh informs, “Generally, an injury like this takes about 6 to 8 weeks for healing, so I’m in my sixth week now. Hopefully, in two more weeks, I’ll be back to 100. It’s much better now, at least I can move around painlessly, and do my normal things. I am up and running now. I just have to get more strength and the fatigue needs to get better, but I am largely okay now.”
