Shagufta Ali seeks help for treatment, says financial crunch made her sell car, jewellery

Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, thousands of people have lost their jobs while many are struggling to make ends meets. In this difficult time, various actors too are going through a rough phase financially. Veteran actor Shagufta Ali, who has appeared in many films as well as TV shows in a career spanning 30 years, has revealed that she is currently going through a major financial crunch.

In a recent interview, Ali has shared that she is out of work at the age of 54 and is broke. For the last four years, she has hardly worked due to which she is struggling to pay even her medical bills. For the unversed, she is suffering from diabetes, among other diseases. Without any source of income, she is also looking after her aged mother and her cousin’s daughter.

She told SpotboyE that she had been ill for the last 20 years, however, at that time she was young and had a lot of work. She was diagnosed with Breast cancer in the third advanced stage and became a survivor. Apart from a few close industry friends, nobody knew about that phase of hers. She also had a couple of accidents during shoots but all these things didn’t stop her from working.

She got detected with diabetes six years back and is facing health issues since then. Her condition has worsened as diabetes has affected her feet whereas her sugar level shoots up because of stress. It has now affected her eyes as well for which she has to go through treatment.

“I have sold my car, jewellery and I have been travelling in auto-rickshaws to go to the doctor. It’s been very hurtful to me because I have been a self-made person. I had no support when I came to this industry and whatever work I have done, I got on merit. I need immediate financial help and also work to survive,” she added.

A few of her industry friends including Neena Gupta, Sumeet Raghavan and Sushant Singh have promised to help. Senior joint Sec & chairperson Outreach committee of Cine & TV Artistes Association, Amit Behl has called this incident “unfortunate” adding that Nupur Alankar from the association will look into the matter.

On the career front, Ali has worked in about 20 TV shows and more than 15 films till now. She has been a part of popular shows like Saath Nibhaana Saathiya, Sasural Simar Ka, Bepannaah (cameo), Ek Veer Ki Ardaas - Veera among others. Some of her notable films are Hero No 1, My Father Godfather, and Laila Majnu.