Anu Aggarwal

Some Lesser Known Facts About Anu Aggarwal

• Anu Aggarwal is a former Indian actor and model.

• She graduated with a gold medal in Sociology from Delhi University.

• After completing her graduation, she started working in IMRB, Kala Ghoda, Bombay in 1987.

• Later, she started working as a VJ. In an interview, she shared her struggling days story, she said,

I was new to Mumbai and an object of unwanted attention on the road. From my PG in Juhu, I took an auto to train station to Churchgate. To save money I used to walk from there to Cuffe Parade to make one phone call not to complain but to soothe my worrying mother that I was ok.”

• Once a modelling agent spotted her at the Churchgate Station in Mumbai. He offered Anu to work as a model in his modelling assignments.

  

• In 1988, she was roped in for the Doordarshan channel’s serial ‘Isi Bahane.’

  

• She appeared as a model for ‘Face of Schweppes Indian Tonic’ in 1989.

• In 1990, she acted in the Bollywood film ‘Aashiqui’ along with the actors like Rahul Roy and Deepak Tijori. The film was a blockbuster, and she became popular as the ‘Aashiqui girl.’

• In an interview, she had said that she never wanted to become an actress and it was the Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt who insisted her to act in his film.

• Later, she acted in various Bollywood films including Ghazab Tamasha (1992), King Uncle (1993), Khal-Naaikaa (1993), Janam Kundli (1995), and Return of Jewel Thief (1996).

  

• In 1993, she debuted in the Tamil film ‘Thiruda Thiruda.’

• In 1994, she appeared as a star endorser and VJ in the MTV India launch show ‘Oye MTV’ that later became ‘BPL Oye!’

• While she was shooting for one of her films in 1995, she realised that films were not her forte, and she could not be in the limelight anymore. So, after the shooting was over, she started travelling overseas. She started practising Yoga in 1997 and almost disappeared from the entertainment industry.

• In 1999, she was back in the news but for some unfortunate reason. While she was driving back home from a party in Mumbai, she met with a major car accident. She had many fractures after the accident. She had a temporary memory loss; due to fracture in her skull. She was in a coma for 29 days. Her face was paralysed, and it took her years to recover completely. In an interview, she revealed the tragic story, she said,

I had a brain bleed and a skull fracture. I had gone completely blank; I didn’t have a past,” she says. “I started life all over again, like a child. For me, it was like discovering Anu. I didn’t remember a lot about my movies at all, actually . . . When I look back, I think, ‘Wow, what a life!” My life started from the day I woke up half paralysed, which is when I didn’t even know what the meaning of paralysis was. I existed outside my body. I had many, so-called, spiritually amazing experiences throughout that time. And I saw the other side, where death is finality and mortality, normal… where the death angel rules.”

• After her recovery from the accident, she started Yoga and meditation and joined a training centre, Bihar School of Yoga in Munger, Bihar.

  

• She started appearing as a motivational speaker for TEDx in 2015.

  

• She published a book in 2015 titled ‘Anusal Memoir Of A Girl Who Came Back From the Dead.’

  

• While she was working in the glamour industry, she was featured on the cover of various magazines.

  

• She is an amateur power-lifter and competed in many power-lifting competitions after recovering from the accident.

• In February 2020, she appeared in ‘The Kapil Sharma Show’ along with the Aashiqui (1990) film actors Rahul Roy and Deepak Tijori.