Written By: Nirmalya Dutta | Updated : December 10, 2014 6:08 PM IST
Alone, the new horror movie starring Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover, recently released its new trailer and it certainly has an interesting premise conjoined twins! From what we could surmise from the plot, one of the twins passes away and comes back to haunt her sibling. Bipasha had talked about her role in an earlier interview with IANS: I play conjoined twins and the two girls are completely opposite from one another and yet the sisters love each other so much. The film s premise seems similar to a 2007 Thai film called Alone which had a similar plot.
What are conjoined twins?
The term conjoined twins refer to individuals born with some shared organs. It s a rare phenomenon that occurs once in every 50,000 births and usually, their survival rate is very low. According to the University Of Maryland Medical Center, the survival rate varies with 40-60% being stillborn while 35% survive day one. The overall survival rate can be anywhere between 5 to 25%. For reasons still now known, female conjoined twins have a higher survival rate. Females are thrice as likely to males to be born alive. (Read: Conjoined twins sharing liver successfully separated)
There are two different theories that explain the reason for this phenomenon. One is the fission theory that believes that the fertilised egg splits partially leading to conjoined twins. The other theory is fusion which believes that the fertilised egg completely separates but the stem cells find similar stem cells and fuse them together.
How are conjoined twins different from other twins?
There are basically two kinds of twins fraternal and identical. Fraternal twins develop from two eggs, each fertilised by separate sperm cells while identical twins develop from one zygote that splits and forms two embryos. Conjoined twins are of the second variety which is why they are genetically identical and always of the same sex. They developed from the same fertilised egg like identical twins but for some reason the splitting process stops before it s complete. These partially separated eggs develop into a conjoined foetus.
Conjoined twins a brief history
There have been many documented cases and one of the oldest ones was in Biddenden, County of Kent, England in the year 1100. The two girls Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst were joined at hips. The most famous pair was Eng and Chang Bunker who were born in Thailand in 1811. They were famously known as the Siamese Twins (Thailand was known as Siam back then). In fact, there was a time when the term Siamese Twins was used synonymously with conjoined twins to explain the phenomenon. They were exhibited in circuses all over the world and then settled in North Carolina where they became businessmen.
They even married two sisters and slept in a bed meant for four! Between them, the pair had 21 children and lived till the ripe old age of 63! Chang actually developed a drinking problem but this didn t affect Eng since they didn t share a urinary system! Eng woke up one night to find his brother dead and though a doctor was called for an emergency separation but he was too late, Eng died three hours later.
Conjoined Twins in India
India also has quite a history of conjoined twins, the most famous recent ones being Bihar s conjoined twins Saba and Farah. They were part of a legal case when the state wanted to pay for the separation surgery but the twins parents didn t want it since the risk of dying was high. The two were joined at the head and shared a vital blood vessel. The SC ruled against their separation.
Another recent case was in Betul s conjoined twins Stuti and Aradhana. The two were around a year old when they were separated in a surgery which involved top docs from India and Australia. MP CM Shivraj Singh discretionary fund had paid Rs 20 lakh for the surgery and the doctors had separated the twins fused livers and removed their hearts. (Read: Bihar s conjoined twins Saba and Farah critical)
The most interesting case involved Ganga and Jamuna Mondal who were 45-year-old and were nicknamed The Spider Sisters since they share four arms and three legs. Travelling around in a circus, they fell in love with a schoolteacher called Jasimuddin Ahmad. The twins were born near Kolkata and they had joined a travelling circus, performing for audiences across India. Ahmad worked part-time with the circus as a sound engineer and fell in love with them. The trio are in a relationship now but still haven t married because they re worried about society s reaction! (Read: Conjoined twins from Madhya Pradesh successfully separated at AIIMS)
Photo source: Getty images
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