Vikram Bhatt recalls terrifying health scare in jail: ‘Don’t want to die here’

Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt and his wife, Shwetambari Bhatt, were arrested in December last year in connection with a cheating case. The couple was later granted bail in February this year. Now, the filmmaker has opened up about a frightening health scare he experienced during that period, revealing that he suffered from a “severe fever and uncontrollable shivering,” yet was not taken to a hospital.

Opening up about the health scare, Vikram wrote, “It must have been three or four weeks since my incarceration in Udaipur Jail. It was the middle of January and the cold was biting in a way only those who have spent a winter night in prison can truly understand. I remember one particular night in Barrack Number 10. There are no clocks in prison, so I do not know what time it was. But I remember waking up suddenly, shivering uncontrollably. My body felt as though it was on fire. It was obvious that I had a fever, though there was no way to measure it.”

“Even with two blankets wrapped tightly around me, I was shaking as if I had no clothes on at all. The men who slept on either side of me, woke up when they saw me trembling. Without saying much, they found two more blankets from somewhere and laid them over me. Even under four blankets, my body kept shaking. I swallowed a paracetamol tablet and hoped it was something that would pass,” he added.

The filmmaker shared that the fever worsened in the morning, writing, “We went to the prison hospital. The doctor had not arrived yet, and strangely there was no thermometer to measure my temperature. They checked my blood oxygen saturation instead and told me everything was fine. I remember looking at the attendant and saying, “You must be joking. I’m shaking with fever and you say I’m fine?” When the doctor arrived, I explained my condition to him.”

The director continued, “The doctor finally wrote a note allowing me to be taken to a hospital. But no one came. First the police were busy protecting a VIP. Then they were busy managing a tribal fair. Day after day I waited in the barrack. My days were filled with pain. My nights with fever. After a point I realised I wasn’t going anywhere.”

“So I did the only thing I could. I stopped eating oil and salt, drank as much water as I could, and sat before a large painting of the Devi in the barrack. And I prayed. I said, ‘If you exist… if my prayers to you have ever meant anything… show me a miracle. I don’t want to die here. My children need me. My wife needs me. My 90-year-old father needs me’. Every day I prayed. And slowly… something changed,” he wrote.

He shared that his lawyer came to meet him in jail, and told him honestly that he felt he might die there. According to Vikram, the fever began to reduce, and the pain slowly eased.

“One morning I looked at the Devi and simply said, ‘Thank you for giving me my life’. Fifteen days later a few policemen finally arrived to take me to the hospital. I laughed. ‘Gentlemen,” I said, “you are about fifteen days too late. You are probably looking at my ghost”. Later I asked an officer what they would have done if it had been an emergency. He said casually, “Oh, then we would have sent you with the prison guards.” So they could have sent me all along. Maybe they chose not to. Or maybe God wanted me to learn something first.

Udaipur superintendent of police (SP) Yogesh Goyal said, “The arrest was made from Ganga Bhavan Apartments in Yari Road area, which is said to be the residence of Bhatt’s sister-in-law. The police will now apply for a transit remand in Bandra court to bring him to Udaipur for further investigation”.

The case was registered on November 17 based on a complaint filed by Dr. Ajay Mudiya, owner of Indira Group of Companies in Rajasthan. In his FIR, he accused Vikram Bhatt and eight others of cheating him of ₹30 crore. This year in February, the Supreme Court granted bail to filmmaker Vikram Bhatt and his wife, Shwetambari Bhatt, in a cheating case where they’re accused of owing ₹30 crore.