Anxiety Isn’t Easy to Accept: Shraddha Kapoor

Shraddha Kapoor talks about anxiety, not working in Saina Nehwal’s biopic and more. 

(Photo: The Quint. Arnica Kala) 

Cameraperson: Sanjoy Deb
Asst. Cameraperson: Gautam Sharma
Video Editor: Ashish Maccune

Shraddha Kapoor is on a success spree. Recently, two films starring Shraddha did big numbers at the box office. Chhichhore has crossed the Rs 100 crore mark at the box office and Prabhas-starrer Saaho has had a massive collection of Rs 150 crores for its Hindi version at the box office.

The Quint caught up with Shraddha Kapoor to talk about the success at the movies, her issues with anxiety and backing out of the Saina Nehwal biopic.

You had ‘Ok Jaanu’, ‘Haseena Parkar’ and ‘Batti Gul’, then you have ‘Stree’, ‘Saaho’ and ‘Chhichhore’. How do you take the highs and lows?

Highs and lows are bound to happen and that’s something that happens with everyone. Two films releasing back to back and both of them doing well is a great feeling.

Are you someone who actually cares about box office numbers or you take it with a pinch of salt?

You know the thing is that numbers are a reflection of how many people have gone and seen your film. That means a lot of people have liked your film, a lot of people have loved your film. So it automatically translates into numbers. I don’t know the business of it but I do know that a large number means a large amount of audience going and watching the film and the movie doing well. So in that sense, it is important for a film to have a certain kind of impact.

You’re an actor, you’ve been in the industry for so long. You’re always in the public eye and there’s always judgement. People are saying things even about your personal life. You’ve also spoken about anxiety. So now that you know of it, how do you deal with it and keep yourself sane?

What really worked for me was my support system, my family, my friends. And a lot of patience with myself. And practices like meditating like really spending time doing the things that I love to do.

When was the first time that you actually realised that this is an issue?

It actually took me a couple of years to realise that… you know I was getting a lot of physical manifestation of anxiety. Neither I nor my loved ones really knew what was wrong. So whenever we would like go and get some tests done everything would come out normal. I was told it’s anxiety. To begin with, i refused to believe it. I didn’t have any reason to be anxious.To accept the fact that it’s okay to be anxious, it’s okay to have anxiety and to work on it was a process. What really helped me was altering my diet as well. Eating right, getting the right amount of sleep. Keeping time for myself as much as I can and really introspecting and reflecting. You know a lot of self-love also goes into it. So those kinds of things have been helping me a lot.

And how do you unwind? What’s Shraddha Kapoor’s process of unwinding?

To begin with, I love what I do so that in itself is some kind of unwinding. Apart from that I love spending time with my loved ones at home my family and being at home reading a book, spending time with my dog. Clean my room, clean the house. I love dusting and rearranging things and reorganising things. That’s a big stress buster for me as well. Just being in bed some days and not doing anything and just flinging my phone to the side. There’s this one corner that I have in my room which is my meditation corner. My plants are there and it’s really peaceful. What I have been doing is very liberating. Before I go to bed, I just fling my phone to that side. And it’s done, I don’t know where it’s landed. There’s a cushioning down so my phone won’t break.So you know it’s kind of disconnection. I can imagine what just doing that would feel like. Done for the day.

And you know with the movie business there’s always… like you win some and you lose some. We heard that you were a part of Saina Nehwal’s biopic. Do you think not doing it will have an effect?

I don’t know, I just know that like it was a film that I really wanted to do it because Street Dancer came my way and I couldn’t say no to Street Dancer. The dates either had to be allotted to that or Saina. So I had to do Street Dancer because couldn’t say no to Remo sir because he gave me ABCD 2. He gave me the platform to do something that I love to do which is dance. I had to be a part of Street Dancer.

We have never seen you go out and protest. But this time you came out on the streets with activists for Aarey forests?

I am a citizen of Mumbai and I wanted to stand up against the fact that they had given permission to cut so many trees. I don’t know if they’ll reverse it.I hope they do.And I still tried to play my part in that. And my fingers are crossed for it because we need more trees and we need to do our bit for the environment as much as we can.