Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone has been one of the many celebs who initiated talks around mental health and opened up about undergoing depression.
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Time and again, she has been working to create awareness on mental health and effectively using her celebrity status to talk about it. Recently, in an interview, the ‘Piku’ actor spoke about maintaining a work-life balance and taking enough time to recharge and replenish.
When asked what are the things she would want to do differently in the industry now that she’s ventured into producing movies, the ‘Bajirao Mastani’ actor said, “I think to begin with the hours that we work, especially for the crew.”
“There is this sort of sense that, make people work overtime, you’ll kind of get the work done faster. And my thinking is actually completely the opposite.”
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She added, “I feel like if people are given enough downtime or rest, they come back with better energy and that better energy anyway makes you work faster and the quality of the output is far better. Step one would be streamlining the hours of work.”
Referring to the West, Padukone also stressed on making a 5-day workweek. “Make it a five-day week. On a Sunday nobody even calls or messages you.”
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Furthermore, she spoke about compensating the crew for the extra hours they work.
“The actors, directors walk away with the awards and the rewards. But the crew, they come in much earlier, leave much later. We need to find a mechanism where the crew is compensated for the extra work on an hourly basis.”
Providing the team with good, nutritious food was also on her list. “I think that nutritious food needs to be served to the crew. There’s a separate A-catering and B-catering, what does that even mean? Food is food, everyone should have access to good, nutritious food. It’s a very small thing. I always feel that if you keep the crew happy and feed them well, they go out of their way.”
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Lastly, she also pointed out that she would like to have a mental health expert on set for the team. “These small things can make a difference to somebody’s entire work experience. People should work because they want to work and not they have to work. Everything else is secondary.”
These are indeed small things that can be easily neglected if someone wants to. But it’s good to see people like Deepika not letting them slide off and using her status to bring a change. Kudos!