Bollywood star visits sick teenager in hospital

Aug 10 2008 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

A BOLLYWOOD heartthrob took time out from filming to pay a special visit to a young fan who is battling a rare lung disease.

Ayesha Ahmed, 15, of Fenham, Newcastle, suffers from Wegener’s disease, an immune system disorder which affects her lungs, making it hard to breathe and she is hooked up to an oxygen machine 24 hours a day.

As a result of her condition, the teenager spends a lot of time in the Royal Victoria Infirmary . . . and she got the surprise of her life last week when Bollywood movie star Arshad Warsi dropped into the Newcastle hospital for a chat.

Mumbai A-lister Arshad is in the region, together with a 60-strong cast and crew from India, to film the Bollywood movie Kaun Bola? in a whole host of locations ranging from Newcastle and Gateshead to Northumberland.

But he asked to take a break from the two-month shoot after hearing about Ayesha’s plight from her uncle Ifty Khan, of Fenham, who briefly joined the production team for a few days.

Ifty, 42, said: “My niece is a big fan of Arshad’s films so the line producer Manish Nair and I arranged a surprise visit, and she was absolutely speechless.

“I was recently on the set and Arshad asked me why I looked concerned after I had been talking to my sister on the phone, so I told him all about Ayesha and how resilient, intelligent and very brave she is. He said he wanted to visit her to boost her confidence and to cheer her up . . . so he went in the very next afternoon, even though he had been filming on a night shoot until 5am on the day of his visit.

“Bollywood films are very popular and people don’t often see the human side of their stars, they just think of them as celebrities, but Arshad is a really nice, down-to-earth guy who dropped everything to see Ayesha.”

Young Ayesha spent 10 weeks in the RVI where she has been undergoing chemotherapy treatment, and she told of her shock when Arshad walked into her hospital room.

She said: “It was a big surprise. My mum came in with my three sisters and they were all excited and giggly, so I knew something was going on but I couldn’t guess what it was.

“Ten minutes later Arshad walked in, said hello and asked how I was . . . and I was a bit gobsmacked to be honest, so I couldn’t speak.

“I’ve seen him in quite a few movies and he’s really funny.

“In real life he was very nice and very polite. It was really nice of him to come and see me.”