Shagufta Ali says she sold off car and jewellery due to financial woes, sought help from Sonu Sood too

Actor Shagufta Ali has said that she has been facing a dearth of work for the past four years and the Covid-19 pandemic made her exhaust all her savings, forcing her to seek help.

Shagufta Ali is best known for the popular TV show Saans in 1998-99. Prior to the show with Neena Gupta and Kanwaljeet Singh, she had already featured in Parampara, Junoon and The Zee Horror Show.

Sharing her financial woes with a leading daily, Shagufta Ali said that she had been managing things by selling off her car and jewellery for the past few years but things got worse with the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns.

"I started facing issues in the last 4 years as work reduced. There was less work, so somehow I tried to manage things on my own by selling off my car and jewellery. I somehow managed to handle things in the first 2/3 years but now in the last 1 year things have been very difficult as I have exhausted all my savings. Honestly, initially I didn’t want to ask for help so I thought whatever I have let me sell that and once I get work, things will get back to normal. But things got from bad to worse because of the pandemic. For everyone else, they are facing lockdown for the last one year but for me, it is going on for the last 4 years. Jitni buri haalat logon ko last ek saal mein hui hai utni buri meri 4 saal se hui hai (The bad situation that people are facing for the last one year, I have been facing for the past four years)."

Shagufta also said that CINTAA earlier contacted her and offered help but she did not take their help as the amount they offered was not of much help. She added that she also tried to seek help from Sonu Sood but 'they don't help with financial expenditure'.

Shagufta Ali also talked about being diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer 20 years ago and braving through the treatment. Calling it a difficult phase, the actor said that she managed to continue working as she was young at the time.

"It was during my show Saans as I had it mid-way during that and I still managed to do all my shoots. I completed shooting during my other show Chattan’s shoot. I remember we would travel to Dubai to shoot the show. In fact, once I had to travel with a cushion on my chest as I was not supposed to travel in that condition. Doctor had clearly told me, you will do it at your own risk. Since the stitches were still there, I had to carry a cushion and hold it all the time. During that time I would shoot for 3-4 shows together and I used to shoot for films also and I would do all of them. I have shot for them with my stitches on," she said.

Shagufta Ali was last seen in Bepannaah in 2018. Apart from TV shows, she has also featured in films such as International Khiladi, Hero No 1 and Laila Majnu.