While fame and luxury might seem like the key facets of a celebrity’s life, erratic shoot hours, sleepless nights and prioritizing work over personal life are often part of the fame game, too. Recently, in an interview with author-lyricist Neelesh Misra, politician and former actor Smriti Irani said that back in the day, she had to return to the shoot of producer Ekta Kapoor’s TV show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi a day after suffering a miscarriage. “I returned because I needed money to pay EMIs for my house,” Irani said.

Here, actors tell us about instances when they kept a personal crisis aside to fulfil their work commitments.

Sometimes, you can be emotionally in a totally different state and you have to shoot for an opposite emotion. I remember a day when my mother was unwell, but I had to shoot a comedy scene. Darshakon ko isse matlab nahin hai ki aapka emotional state kya tha jab aapne koi scene shoot kiya. Yahin pe actor ka commitment aa jaata hai. Another instance was two weeks ago. I was so sick that I couldn’t speak. But I went for the shoot because I didn’t want the entire unit to suffer.

I broke my knee in 2022 on the set of Indian Police Force (her upcoming web project). It was the most debilitating moment of my life. I had committed to a lot of things and everything came to a standstill. But there was one event that I could not back out of as the organizers had arranged everything. I kept my word and reached on a wheelchair, but it was really hard.

I was running a 102-degree fever when I shot for the song Vaddi Sharaban (De De Pyaar De; 2019). My mum did cold pattis in-between the shots. Another difficult situation was when I was shooting for a project and I heard that my grandmother passed away. My dad asked me to come immediately, but I finished that day’s shoot, because I couldn’t have left it [midway]. The bright side is, we love our job so we push our physical and emotional boundaries.

In 2001, I was shooting for my show Jasoos Vijay near Jaisalmer. My brother called and said that our father had passed away. The next minute, I was told the shot was ready, so I shot for the next two hours. There were 150 people on the set and if I’d left, they’d have been stuck for four days. Another instance was in April last year. I fell flat on my nose on the set of The Storyteller. The director asked me to go to the hospital, but I asked them to cover the cut with VFX and finished work.

The most difficult time was when I lost my father (filmmaker Ravi Tandon) on February 11, 2022. I was shooting for One Friday Night (2022) and since the makers had an urgent shoot to finish, I returned to work on February 13. I was not in the right frame of mind, but sometimes, you should keep yourself aside and think of others.