Nabha Natesh was going great guns in Tollywood when she met with an accident in the latter half of 2021, leaving her bed-ridden for a year.
The last time audiences saw Nabha on the silver screen was in Maestro which was released in September 2021. “I slipped in a restroom and badly injured my left shoulder. I was in extreme pain. I was immediately taken to the hospital. After some tests, the doctors said that I need to undergo a surgery as there were multiple small breaks,” the actress tells us.
Nabha was shocked by the severity of the injury. “After a lot of contemplation, I went for a minor corrective surgery. It was successful and things got back to normal,” she reveals.
Nabha started lifting weights as part of her daily workout routine, on the doctor’s suggestion. But she started experiencing pain again, and had to go back for tests. A thorough examination revealed that she had had a relapse of the injury.
She was advised to go under the knife again – just three months after the first surgery. “I felt an immense jolt when I heard that; the news hit me badly,” Nabha shares. “Just when I thought things were getting back to normal, I had to go through this.”
After her second surgery Nabha was again confined to her home, but this time for a longer period - around six months. She had become weak and could not stand for long hours. “More than the physical injury, I was psychologically affected. I hardly spoke to anyone. I distanced myself from several of my friends. I didn’t want them to know about my accident because I didn’t want to see ‘get well soon’ messages from them,” Nabha explains.
While the world lost around two years to Covid, Nabha was prepared to sacrifice another one year for her recovery. She knew what was coming and was prepared. But for a workaholic like her, the ordeal was even more challenging.
“I had to be mentally strong and needed to re-gather myself and start my recuperation. It’s a phase I don’t want to remember, but it’s not something that I can forget,” she says with a smile. “I knew I will make it but I had to go through the process which was tough and traumatising. My daily routine was completely disturbed,” she shares.
Asked where she gained strength from, she says she was enveloped in care. “It was a gruesome phase of my life, and I had managed to get out of that depressing time with support from my family and eventually my close friends.”
Apart from doing yoga and meditation, spending time watching films and listening to inspiring music were instrumental in her recovery. “Not to forget my fans' support. I was away from social media but their messages and their concern made me understand how much I mean to them,” says Nabha.
What was going through her mind during this phase, we ask. “I just wanted to get out of my home and start working. It was very depressing but that’s how life is. You never know what can unfold when,” she says.
Asked if any friends from the industry called to pep her up, she replies, “Like I said, I did not want any of them to know what exactly happened. Moreover, initially I thought that I could get over the injury after a couple of months. But later, the relapse made life more difficult.” But her friends slowly came to know about her plight and stood by her, she says.
Nabha’s takeaway from the whole experience is simple: ‘Just be grateful for what you have.’ She says that the ordeal changed her perspective on life. “I have found my inner wealth, which is bigger than anything you can earn materially. I have proved how strong we can be if we work at it. I believed in myself and it did wonders to me,” she says, adding that self-belief was very crucial in her road to healing.
And now, Nabha is back in action and all charged up. “I want to clarify that it’s not a ‘comeback’ because a comeback is when you intentionally leave the industry and try to make a return. But I never left the industry; it’s just that I was down due to health issues. But yes, I have been in talks with a few filmmakers and am on the verge of signing a couple of projects,” she reveals.
