Work till you drop: Deepa Parab

Work till you drop

Deepa Parab and Aditi Pratap continue to work despite severe illness. So does everyone else in the television industry

Sapana Patil Poojary

TV actors follow almost inhuman work schedules. Very often actors feel the pressure and collapse on the sets.

Recently Deepa Parab who plays the lead in Sony's Thodi Khusi Thode Gham, was added to the list of stressed out TV stars. She suffered from malaria last year and before she could recover fully, had a relapse. Despite this, she has been reporting for her shootings regularly. Parab says, "After I was diagnosed with malaria, I took rest for just two days, and resumed work from the third day. Not because I had recovered fully, but because I was required urgently to shoot for my scenes. There was no option for me bu to go to work. When scenes have to be canned, there is no alternative. When a serial goes on air, it has a bank of episodes, but that gets exhausted soon. Also, there are the routine requirements like 'improvement' shots, etc. Such things often happen at the last minute. The worst part is that, malaria leaves scars on your face. So I have to apply extra layers of make up to hide them."

Another actress who is braving shooting schedules despite being unwell is Aditi Pratap. Pratap who plays Aditi in Saat Phere, has been reporting to shoots with a cast around her ankle. "I have a severe problem with my knee," she explains. "I had damaged it while practising yoga. Now I can't bend it, nor can I walk up and down the stairs. I can't sit on the floor, neither can I wear high heels. My knee is so bad that it hurts all the time. To make matters worse, a doctor has told me that the actual problem stems from my ankle. Apparently, I had been walking around with a dislocated ankle and that created an indirect pressure on my knee. Now I have been told to wear a cast around my ankle which I will have to continue to wear for the next eight months. I can barely move, yet if the scene demands it (like one of the marriage sequences I shot for recently) I do sit on the floor, even though I know it will cause acute pain."

Why doesn't she take a break from work? "How can I refuse work," she asks. "TV actors relax only when they have no work. I know actors who have put off vacations, marriages and even honeymoons because of work."