"She'd knifed my rucksack open."
Nina Wadia recently revealed a disturbing incident from her life. The actress was interviewed by BBC Sounds when she shared the anecdote.
Nina opened up about how she was mugged twice, and she also spoke about what cultivated her outlook on London.
She said: “I got mugged twice, and this was when ATM machines had just been put into the high streets.
“I was getting my rent out, which I think, believe it or not, was £60 for the week.
“And I just remember a very tall presence behind me and this voice going, ‘You want to give me that, don’t you?’
“Then, he pressed really hard into my back and went, ‘I said, you want to give me that, don’t you?’
“His voice changed. At that point, my hand went straight up. ‘Have it, I don’t want anything’.
“He took it, and as he walked, he went, ‘Thanks, mate!’
“Cut to about three weeks ago, going forward, I’m in Central London, in Oxford Street.
“I felt a punch in my back. She’d knifed my rucksack open, and my friend starts screaming because she’d just missed my spine.
“I was angry because I’d just lost my mum, and my favourite photo of my mother was in that wallet.
“So there I am bleeding in the back, putting my hands in every single bin up and down Oxford Street, looking for the photo of my mother.
“[I] never did [find it], but it doesn’t matter because what happened along that way was the amount of people that saw that happen in the store, the amount of people that said, ‘We’ll go through the bins’.
“And there were people walking up and down, didn’t know me from Adam, they went looking up and down, and said, ‘We’ll meet you back here in an hour’.
“Now that is why I love London.”
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While it was shocking and unacceptable that Nina Wadia had to endure these incidents, her words about the kindness of others will reassure people about the goodness of humanity.
Throughout her prolific career, Nina amassed the most fame in the BBC’s EastEnders.
In the early 1990s, Nina auditioned for the role of Gita Kapoor.
Although she didn’t land that part, she went on to play Zainab Masood in the show in 2007.
Zainab was a comedic yet strong matriarch.
As Zainab, Nina’s storylines included her marriage to Masood Ahmed (Nitin Ganatra) and struggling to come to her terms with her son Syed’s (Marc Elliott) sexuality.
In 2011, Zainab found herself drawn back to her ex-husband, Dr Yusef Khan (Ace Bhatti), who subjected her to harrowing domestic violence.
Nina Wadia remained in EastEnders until 2013, when she opted to leave the show to explore other opportunities.
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