Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Deepika Padukone’s reported demand for an eight-hour workday and her subsequent exit from controversial filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Prabhas-starrer, Spirit, due to disagreement over this, has put the spotlight on the topic of fixed working hours in cinema. While one section of industry professionals and the general audience backed her demand, she also faced considerable backlash from another quarter. Now, National Award-winning actor Rani Mukerji has shared her perspective on the matter, revealing how she balanced work and motherhood.
“When I did Hichki (2018), Adira (Rani and her husband Aditya Chopra’s daughter) was 14 months old, and I was still breastfeeding her, so I had to pump the milk and go in the morning, and I was shooting in a college in town. From my house in the suburbs in Juhu to that place, and the traffic takes about two hours. So I kind of made it a thing where in the morning I would leave at 6.30 after expressing my milk and I would shoot. My first shot used to be at 8 in the morning and I used to wrap up everything by 12.30-1. My unit and my director, they were so planned that for those 6-7 hours I used to finish my shoot and before the traffic would start in town, I used to be home by 3 o’clock. And I did my film like that,” she recalled during a conversation with news agency ANI. It may be mentioned here that Deepika had backed out from the sequel to Kalki AD 2898 too recently.
Rani also pointed out that such amicable solutions can only be achieved through open discussions with the respective team members. The actor, who recently won her first National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway (2023), added, “These things are up in conversation today because maybe people are discussing it outside. But this has been the norm with all professions. I’ve also done it where I have worked for certain hours. If the producer’s okay with it, you go ahead with the film. If the producer’s not okay with it, you don’t do the film. So it’s also a choice. Nobody is forcing anything on anybody.”
During the conversation, she also opened up about director Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), her movie that underperformed at the box office but has since attained cult status among modern audiences. “It feels nice to be a part of films that are ahead of their time. Maybe India wasn’t ready for it, but in history, when people talk about your films, they will remember them for actually speaking aloud to the nation and addressing an audience who is not ready to face the truth. But it also made people uncomfortable because it made them see their own truths in their lives,” she said, adding that the movie spoke the “uncomfortable truth.” Besides Rani, the film also featured Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Preity Zinta in key roles.
Opening up about her husband, director-producer Aditya Chopra, and why they decided to keep their marriage, which took place in 2014, a private affair, Rani said, “My husband is a very private person, and I think he wanted the wedding to be very private. So obviously, I don’t think he’ll ever want the wedding pictures to be out. I think I was always private because my work life is different, my personal life is different. If you’ve seen me through the years I think I only make like appearances when there is a reason for it. It’s not always all the time.”
Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
