Titas Chowdhury (HINDUSTAN TIMES; April 1, 2020)

“I am spending a lot of time with my cat, and somehow, it feels like my cat is more depressed than me. But I’m trying to look at the positive side rather than filling myself with the gloom that’s out there. The first couple of days of the lockdown stressed me out as I kept thinking about its consequences. But I feel much better right now,” says Sanya Malhotra as she’s nestled at her Mumbai apartment.

The actor stresses on importance of keeping stress and anxieties surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic at bay and focusing our energies on productive activities. She shares, “It’s better to stay busy by doing the things that we always wanted to do for a long time. All this while, we’ve been too busy running around doing things that we thought were important. Now is the time to focus your energy and time on your health and the things that make you happy.”

Malhotra explains that at a time of a health crisis like this, she maintains her sanity by not consuming too much of information. “It’s very important to be informed about what’s happening in the country and across the world and the kind of precautions that one must take. But I’ve been limiting the information because it’s a little overwhelming,” says the Badhaai Ho (2018) actor, adding, “All of us are active on social media now. People are posting videos of hospitals. It’s a constant reminder about the crisis that we’re in, which is, of course, important but there should be a limit to it. Over-consumption of information isn’t healthy.”

She believes that along with helping them financially, one must make their house helps and staffs aware of the false information floating around. “We should also take the responsibility of making them aware of the rumours. My house help is an avid Tik Tok follower. It has a lot of fake information,” she says.

The actor’s happy to be putting on her dancing shoes and make the most of the lockdown period. She says, “It’s a good time to pursue your hobbies. I love dancing and I used to hardly get the time to dance on a regular basis. I’ve also been working out a lot. Since we’re locked up inside our houses, it’s very easy to get bored and feel anxious. Every time I feel anxious, I make sure that I start engaging in some sort of activity even if it means dancing before the mirror.”

Is she worried about the release of her upcoming ensemble film Ludo directed by Anurag Basu being pushed? “Not at all! she says. Malhotra adds, “Even though my film is really special to me, I believe that we need to tackle the pandemic first. I hope that once this is over, people go to watch my film with a happy mind.”