The tragic death of popular actress Pratyusha Banerjee is certainly a 'wake-up call' to all in the industry to strengthen their inner minds to fight the odds of existence. Yes, the life of a celebrity is indeed glamorous and comes with name, fame and recognition. However, it does have a flipside. What is it? Well, a rigorous schedule of facing the camera for more than 15-16 hours, working for deadlines without proper sleep and timely food, and getting into habits of smoking, drinking to get to a comfort zone after a hard day’s work. And of course, not to forget the late night partying, vulnerable sex life, so on and so forth only adds to the pressure of an individual, especially the youngsters searching for glory in the busy hustle-bustle of Mumbai. So how does one tackle the ‘downs’ in life? How to work out a means to get on the right path if you are on the road leading nowhere? What can success bring to you, and what will failure take away from you? Just imagine a life of a celebrity, that too a youngster in today’s times. In most of the cases, the boy or girl comes from a small home town, in order to spread his / her wings and become an actor. This situation gets all the more complicated for a girl, when she all of a sudden she sees herself out of the ‘protective’ ambience of her parents, and into the real ‘bad’ world where every second a new hurdle pops up. So here starts the problem of whom to ‘trust’ and whom not to!! The stress that gets created when you don’t have the necessary social and emotional support around you, people who are there for you in real. And the concern is ubiquitous. Bollywood star Deepika Padukone opened up on her battle against depression. The lonely heart behind those stretched lips in front of the camera, gnaws into one’s happiness and eventually creates a hole which is all but despair beyond limits. Few manage to battle it out, like Deepika, while many succumb, like Pratyusha. We would like to mention that we were saddened to break the news of Pratyusha’s death. And our stomachs churned with every bit of news and information which we had to share with our readers, for such is the nature of the medium. However, we would like this to be the last case. We want the fraternity to think, come together to make this industry more sensible and receptive. Thus, we connected with fraternity seniors, counsellors and even young actors to get different perspectives and create an ambience which would help stop such heart wrenching incidents in the future. Instant fame can be problematic at times. At a very tender age, working out a life with the sudden inflow of huge money can leave you confused. Also, ups and downs are a part of life. So when you meet success, you will also have to see failures. And when the failure bug bites, it bites deep!! And the most difficult part is to carry the baggage of being a celebrity 24*7. The pressure that creeps in is immense when you really know you have to look good, wear those branded attires and accessories even when your mind is troubled, foreseeing a rather bleak future. So what’s the solution to such problems? Tellychakkar.com got in touch with Dr Narendra Kinger, Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist, Mumbai for his expert comments on the same. “Mental health is mostly ignored in our country. And when you take the TV industry into consideration, it is a high stress and high visibility zone. Also, it is a very disorganized environment. All this creates a lot of problems for youngsters. In their case, the mental pressure is always at a high, as they initially need to work hard to succeed. After this, they need to keep working harder to sustain the success. The second point according to me is the lonely existence of most of the actors who hail from smaller towns, and come to Mumbai seeking stardom. Most of them have trust issues, and do not indulge in forming a close bonding with anyone. Also, they need to be isolated from the crowd owing to the celebrity status. So they are deprived of doing all the normal things that they would have aspired to do. Also, the maturity levels of youngsters are mostly questionable. They get to experiment with alcohol, drugs, random sexuality and sudden freedom.” Valuing the ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ is very much essential. And this is what director turned producer Sidharth Sengupta told us. “Youngsters should know that failures are part of the game. In fact, I do not like the word failure, so it is rather the ups and downs of life. This happens with everybody, and nobody is perfect. People need to understand that nothing comes easily to us. Reaching a place is something, but staying there is another. It is a long road ahead, and you have to keep going. I believe in ‘strive for excellence, not for success’. Don’t get bogged down; just to know that ups and downs will be there is good enough. After all, nothing is permanent.” So is this a place where ‘women’ need to be extra-cautious considering their high emotion levels? Senior actress Jaya Bhattacharya shared: “Our industry is the ‘bestestttt’ industry ever. I would say, women are pretty safe here. However, the way we live our life is very important. Nowadays, we see every young girl who looks pretty, making a move to Mumbai to become an actor. However, they do not realize that it is not only a good face that matters. Yes, if they aspire to become actors, they need to give themselves a time frame, work sincerely towards the goal. If you get it, good enough. But if you do not make it, then move ahead and tell yourself that you can be good in another thing.” Jaya continued, “See, this is a fast life. So when girls from small towns get instant fame, they tend to work and then party hard. So where are you devoting time for yourself? If you have your family staying with you, it is fine. But for those who live alone, this life can get miserable. In that case, you need to have a close set of people who can even call you an idiot. And yes, you have to accept it. Such friends are rather important to have. Also, youngsters need to sit down and self-evaluate. This is applicable for all the young ones, irrespective of the profession they are into. There is the need to have a friend who can show you the mirror.” Accepted, a lot of quick fame creates a murky ambience, wherein choosing the best and leaving the bad untouched becomes a huge problem. Citing this problem, Producer J D Majethia added, “Most of the youngsters in today’s industry live in a fantasy world. Yes, this is a tough line to be in, but you have to be clever in choosing the right kind of lifestyle. The good lifestyle is all about choosing good health, having the urge to look good always. The bad lifestyle will drag you into all sorts of mess, starting from partying, creating weak relationships around you, getting habituated to drinking, smoking and what not. People who do this are literally living two lifestyles, and that’s not acceptable.” Another problem that senior actor Amit Behl cited is, “Earlier, we used to have a one-to-one interaction with all involved in the making of a show. Also, actors used to come in with a good baggage of work in the theatre. But now, youngsters do not go through the gambit of theatre in most cases. So when fame comes rather quickly, they tend to get carried away. And yes, that is when they have problems fighting the highs and the lows. This is where they need guidance coming from senior actors, producers, colleagues, peers etc. The euphoria of being a star is big, but you need to learn from actors like Amitabh Bachchan and the ones who have survived for long in the industry. Take for example, Mohit Raina. Even after receiving high popularity for Mahadev, he has a balanced mind.” So are women more vulnerable to this chronic scenario? Dr Narendra added, “It is a myth that women fall prey to suicidal tendencies. Actually, statistics will show that out of every 3 suicides, 2 are attempted by women, and 1 is by man. But research has shown that when men do it, it mostly gets completed. But when a woman does it, 5 out of 10 suicides are saved. And in the case of men, 8 out of 10 are successful. So this is the logic behind it.” “Also, women are known to be emotional. Women give out emotional reactions, while men will have partial emotional and partial rational reaction. In a way, men tend to control their emotions. Hence, when there is a loss of relationship, the impact is more on women. They seem to be very much traumatized when they lose a very important part of their life. On the other hand, men have been made to control their emotions. They suppress it most of the times. So the conditioning of men is not to be suicidal; they react to stressful situations rather differently by drinking alcohol, driving car badly, fighting on roads etc.” Also, Dr Narendra shared a startling research theory. “Research has shown that women are drinking much larger quantities of alcohol than men in India. It is a scary finding that the alcohol consumption of women in India has gone up by 300 percent in the last 10 years. These are signs that they are not able to deal with stress related problems.” Jaya at this point said, “Most of the new girls entering the acting field are not even graduates. It is very essential that they need to concentrate on studies, as education will give them a clear picture of what’s right and what’s wrong for them. Also, if you are well educated, the insecurity factor does not seep in easily. One needs to get strong and possess a strong inner mind. Tough situations are bound to come in this line, so there is always a need to save your hard-earned money.” Talking about the ways in which solutions can be found, Dr Narendra stated, “We need to work on these people, and put them to some sort of training to help them cope up with the pressure. When you are a celebrity, privacy is at a premium. So they should initially decide the kind of public image they want to have, whether they want the world to know very little about them, or know everything about them. They should be made aware of media handling, public image etc. Also, we need to have some sort of a psychological counselling, like they have the group therapy in the West. The program will have 10-12 individuals joining along to discuss problems with a trained person, find solutions and also make friendships. Also, exercise programs like yoga helps in controlling stress and regulating lifestyle.” He added, “For example, I am giving a hypothetical example here. The industry can recognize 15-20 professionals in the areas from Bandra to Borivili, and whenever an actor finds the need to seek help, he / she can directly go and approach them for counselling. Also, one can have awareness programs every month. Also, the senior people in the industry can come together to form a Corporate Social Responsibility Program which looks into such services. Basically, an individual needs to identify the kind of stress he /she is undergoing, and work out ways to find solutions.” Talking at length about the awareness programs CINTAA has been planning, Amit explained, “Yes, we have been working on this for some time now. Our first program will in fact start on 17 April wherein we will be sending invites to all actors via smses and mails. We will have counselling sessions, friendly chats, one-to-one interactions, experience sharing etc. I am joined by people like Aditi Gowitrikar, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sunil Sinha and many more in this effort. Correct guidance is very important and I know this as I had people like Kanwaljeet Singh, Deepak Qazir, Asha Parekh, Anju Mahendroo helping me out during my depression phase early in my career.” Lastly, Jaya shared with us some ‘golden words’ told to her by the veteran actor S M Zaheer, “Samay se pehle aur kismet se zyada kuch nahi milta, is what I believe in. Another advice given by Zaheer Saab was that, ‘Is industry main bura actor chal jaata hai, bura insaan nahi chalta’. So try to be a good individual. Work on your mental strength and be bold to face the world. Only then success will fall at your feet.” Rightly said, all of you!! All very nice thoughts, and if accomplished, one will find happiness all around. #prayforpratyusha