Khyati Rupani, who worked at Mumbai’s Lilavati hospital as a dietician, recalled stories about her interactions with stars over the years. She said that Rishi Kapoor was very irritated about having to eat vegetarian food during his stint there, as the hospital is a meat-free space. She also recalled how polite Amitabh Bachchan was while asking the staff to be extra-careful while treating his mother, Teji Bachchan. She then shared a story about na unusual demand that Saif Ali Khan had while he was admitted for an angioplasty in the past. Saif was recently rushed to the same hospital after being attacked at his home in the Bandra suburb of Mumbai.
She said in an interview with Ronak Kotecha on YouTube, “I know Saif Ali Khan was there recently, but back then, he’d come for an angioplasty. He was very particular about, ‘Why is there no dessert?’ I told him, ‘You’ve just had an angioplasty, sir. I’m not going to…’ So, we worked it out. I went to the kitchen and said, ‘Let’s not give him a regular dessert’. So, we used to make custard and jelly.”
In the same interview, the doctor admitted that Rishi Kapoor left the hospital in a bad mood because he wasn’t allowed to eat what he wanted to. “Mr Rishi Kapoor was somebody who hated his food getting cut and Mrs Neetu was always about, ‘Inko mat do. Inko kyu gulab jamun dia (Don’t give it to him. Why did you give him gulab jamun)’? So yes, he was one of the very unhappy clients. I tried doing everything but I think he went irritated only.””
Asked to name a ‘nice’ celebrity, she said, “I must name Mr Amitabh Bachchan. Mrs Teji Bachchan was in the hospital for 11 months and she was on tube feeds,” she recalled and shared that during this time, they would sometimes witness some delays as they were dealing with an entire hospital full of patients. “In 11 months, sometimes, her feeds used to go late. It’s an operation. We are feeding 400 beds. We are dealing with salt restricted diets, we are checking everything.”
Saif reportedly suffered a mild heart attack in 2007, and was rushed to the Lilavati hospital, where he was kept under observation for a few days after getting an angioplasty. “Saif had been working day and night and was over-exerted. He returned from South Africa at 1.30 am on Sunday and rushed to the MMRDA grounds at the Bandra-Kurla Complex to practice for Sunday night’s Stardust Awards,” his sister Soha said in an interview carried by the Hindustan Times at the time.
