When Deepika Padukone opened up about her battle with depression in an interview, it came as a shock to many who thought that bollywood only had a glamorous, happy and attractive side to it. Thanks to Deepika, depression was no longer a taboo word for celebrities who feared coming out in public about such private matters.
Now, recently in an interview with Film Companion, Parineeti Chopra has also confessed that she suffered through clinical depression for a year in her life. She said, “The end of 2014 and all of 2015 - that one and a half year was truly the worst time in my life. Two of my films, Daawat-e-Ishq and Kill Dil, did not work. Suddenly, I did not have money. I had made a lot of money by then, but I had bought a house and I had made some big investments. Then I went through a big heartbreak in my life. Literally all the departments in my life were down. Nothing positive to look forward to.”
“I went into a shell. I stopped eating, I stopped sleeping well. I did not have any friends at that time. I never used to meet people. The people I was in touch with, I cut off from everyone, including my family. I would talk to them once in two weeks. I was finished. I just used to be in my room, watching TV, sleeping, staring all day.”Parineeti Chopra
Talking about clinical depression and symptoms, the Meri Pyaari Bindu actor said, “I would cry maybe 10 times a day. I was always upset and crying. I had this chest pain that would not go out of my body. I have never felt actual clinical depression. It happened to me in that year.”
This was also the phase where Parineeti was no where to be seen and started working on her fitness. It was one of the ways she tackled that low period in her life. “I started working on myself. I became fitter, signed Golmaal Again and Meri Pyaari Bindu. I moved into a new house. I just took life into my own hands because I thought if I go into this pit, I will never come out again,” she added.
In the interview, she also spoke about the gender pay gap in the industry, and said, “I have actually seen cheques of heroes of the same film, getting paid four times the amount I was paid. That's when I realised that there is a thing called 'pay parity'. But then we make it up in endorsements. So that is why I do not talk about it as much because I feel the boys don't do as many endorsements as the girls do.”
“For many films, I didn’t get my fair price because I just couldn’t argue that I should be paid more. Even though my position was good enough and I thought that I deserved that price, I couldn’t explain it to the producers.”Actor Parineeti Chopra
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