Nushrratt Bharuccha issues long note, shares the terrifying experience of being caught in Israel

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Nushrratt Bharuccha, who was stranded in Israel since Saturday, has returned to Mumbai safely. The actress flew to Israel to attend the Haifa International Film Festival 2023. Her film, Akelli, was screened there.

Now, hours later, the actress has put out a video and a long note. She in the video and note shared the details about the terrifying experience. The actress thanked the governments of India and Israel for helping her. Later she posted a long note and shared, "The last week will forever remain etched in my memory...a rollercoaster ride of emotions, the final 36 hours of which will remain the most unforgettable and daunting of my life...

My producer, stylist and I had been flown in to Haifa in Israel, on October 3, to attend the reputed Haifa International Film Festival for the screening of our recent film, Akelli, alongside my Israeli co- actors, Tsahi Halevi and Amir Boutrous. After two days of visiting all of Israel's historic places, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Bahá'l, the Dead Sea, we'd almost ended our trip with a celebratory dinner for the film's cast on Friday night, Oct 6. That evening, Tsahi, Amir and I had toasted our film's selection at the Haifa Film Fest, promised to visit each other, and possibly work together again. We'd said our goodbyes and were ready to fly back the next day.

But Saturday morning was nothing like the previous evening's celebration. We were woken up to the deafening sounds of bombs going off, a blaring siren, and complete and utter panic as we were all rushed down into a 'shelter' in the basement of our hotel. It was only when we emerged from in there, after what seemed like an endless wait, that we learnt that Israel was under attack. Nothing could have prepared us for this news."

Later the actress shared how it was difficult for them to even contact the Indian Embassy which was 2km from the hotel she was staying in. In her note, Nushrratt also shared how a taxi driver helped them and also wrote, "We mustered all the courage we could find and picked ourselves up to somehow get to the airport and take any flight out to any country we could manage to.

Our journey out of our Tel Aviv hotel was not easy, to put it mildly... praying the whole time, even crying sometimes, we held onto each other for courage to keep on going, somehow making it to Ben Gurion Airport. The wait between one formality to the next for boarding a flight has never been more excruciating...what would otherwise have been routine was an uncertain and completely unpredictable few hours, to say the very least. With every small postponement announced, we despaired further, our hearts sinking again...surreal is a very weak word to describe how exactly we felt when we were finally airborne."

She further thanked the Government of India, the Indian Embassy and the Israeli Embassy, for their help. "I would also like to thank each and every one of my well-wishers from the bottom of my heart for their wishes and prayers for my safety," she concluded.