NEW DELHI: Veteran actress Shabana Azmi has been seriously injured in an accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway on Saturday, reports said.

They said the accident took place around 3:30pm near Khalapur, about 60 kilometres from Mumbai, when the SUV the 69-year-old actress was travelling in, rammed a truck from behind in Maharashtra’s Raigad district this afternoon.

Her husband Javed Akhtar was also in the car but did not apparently suffer injuries. Photos of the accident showed Shabana Azmi being helped out of the rear seats of the SUV, her face and eye swollen.

Such was the impact that the front passenger’s side of the SUV was completely destroyed.

A photo shows the bonnet of the car crumpled and the radiator and bonnet wrecked.

Shabana Azmi was first rushed to MGM hospital in Navi Mumbai but was later shifted to Kokilaben Ambani Hospital in Mumbai’s Andheri area, Press Trust of India said.

“She is stable and under observation,” Dr Santosh Shetty, Executive Director and CEO of Ambani hospital was quoted as saying in a statement late in the evening.

Highway police patrol teams have rushed to investigate the accident site.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on the accident, saying the news of her injury “is distressing”, adding that he prayed “for her quick recovery”.

Shabana Azmi, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 1998 and the National Film Award five times, is known for her work in several critically-acclaimed movies like Ankur, Arth and Mandi. She was last seen in 2017’s The Black Prince.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2020