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Speaking to CNBC-TV18 on the eve of World Mental Health Day, Padukone stressed the need for structured workplace systems in an industry which she says has never really operated that way.
Padukone said, “I have been very vocal about how I am slowly but surely focusing on bringing about change in the workplace as far as the Indian film industry is concerned because it is brutal.”
“And I think we have a tendency to do things that way. If a system has been working well for so long, why rock the apple cart? And I’ve never really been that person. I’m always looking at how can we do something better?”
Gender discrimination in the Indian film industry
Padukone highlighted the gender bias regarding working hours and said that many male superstars have been working for 8 hours for years, but it never made headlines.
He said, “It is no secret that many male superstars in the Indian film industry have been working 8-hour days for years and it has never made headlines.”
He said that some women, including those who have recently become mothers, have also started working in 8-hour shifts, but this too has not been given much attention. Padukone emphasized that the issue is bigger than just working hours, pointing to the disarray of the industry as a whole.
He said, “Although the Indian film industry is called an industry, we have never really functioned like an industry. We are a very disorganized industry, and I think it’s time we brought some kind of systems into this culture.”
price of speaking
Talking about the challenges she faced in speaking out, Deepika said that she has learned to fight her battles quietly.
She said, “I am someone who has always fought my battles quietly and for some strange reasons, sometimes they become public, which I don’t know, and that’s the way I have grown up. But yes, fighting my battles and doing it quietly and respectfully is the way I know.”
Padukone’s comments come at a time when conversations about workplace culture and mental health are growing louder in the Indian film industry, especially in the post-COVID era.
Through her Live Love Laugh Foundation, she has been advocating for mental health awareness, and her comments underscore the need for both gender equality and structured work practices in Bollywood.
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