Netflix's 'Delhi Crime 3' cast backs work-life balance amid Deepika Padukone's 8-hour shift demand, Shefali Shah says 'I need to go home and...'

In an industry known for long and irregular hours, the cast of “Delhi Crime 3”, including Shefali Shah, Rasika Dugal, and Huma Qureshi, expressed the need for a work environment which is “not exploitative and allows creative aberration when the situation demands”.

What Shefali Shah said

Shah, who has been in the film industry for three decades, said she is now in a position to say “I want to go home”. The actor explained she loves being on set, but sometimes it becomes exhausting.

“After all these years, I can say, ‘I need to go home’. We are very reasonable actors, we are not badly behaved, we understand when. It’s like we’ve to finish this, we get that. But you can’t make that a normal,” the actor, who returns as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi in the third season of the International Emmy Award-winning series, told PTI in an interview.

I remember when I worked in the 90s, we had an eight-hour shift. But there were a lot of things that were not right like the payment, and other things, which are not a problem today. Ideally, the shift should be eight hours.

Sayani Gupta

Actors are in a position of power, where they can set certain standards. If you make me work for 22 hours, I will say never, but one thing I’ll never do is walk out of set, saying, ‘That’s it, my time is over, and I’m leaving’, I’ll never do that because I’m also a filmmaker.

Actors are in a position who can say, ‘If we go, then the rest of the shoot will pack up’. So, we’ve to stand up for everybody else,” she said, citing that in Kolkata, many industry professionals operate on eight-hour shifts.

Everybody is allowed to have their own version of work-life balance. If I need a 10-hour turnaround, for somebody who has a family and it’s a choice at different stages in your life, that you can make, and the other person has free will to hire you or not, and vice versa.

Director Tanuj Chopra

I’ve to be efficient with my instructions, and get on time, if I’m prepared, I know what I want, and how to get my work done. People extend shifts way too long, maybe I go an hour here or there because all kinds of things happen on sets, but there’s no reason if you’re prepped well, you can get out in 12 hours. It’s all about preparation, those who work for 18 or 20 hours are just not prepared.

With added inputs from agencies