‘Nazar’ actress Priya Malik has spoken up about how there should be a fixed week-off for every actor and how that helps in bettering the mental health of the actors.
Actress-turned-poet Priya Malik feels it’s very important to take a break even in the most demanding working environment. Sharing her experience of when she worked on the TV show ‘Nazar’, she reveals that she ensured that she took some time off to refresh herself.
“It’s really important to have a work-life balance. Having done a daily soap myself I know how exhausting it can be. I have seen TV actors go on for 55 days without taking a single day of break and to me, that is not healthy at all,” she says.
“I understand that it is a professional commitment but I also believe that even during the day there should be a more organized structure of breaks. In fact, there should be a mandatory break every week or after 10 days for every actor,” she adds.
Talking about her own experience, she says, “When I was working as a TV actor, I used to travel from Bandra to Naigoan then shoot for 12 hours and then come back to Bandra. You are looking at a 16-hour shift there and it was exhausting without any breaks because we were shooting for a daily.”
“At the same time, even when I worked as a freelance actor and poet, I sometimes struggle to create that work-life balance but I am very cognizant of it and because I am aware of it, I make sure that I take some time out,” she adds.
But if things get tense, and one is stressed, Priya Malik suggested that visiting a counsellor can help. She adds, “TV gets very repetitive because you are playing the same character and following the same storyline, so I think it is good to have someone from the outside to have a conversation with. Because sometimes you may not be comfortable sharing things with co-actors who become like family but you might be comfortable sharing with a stranger.”