The conversations around mental health might have evolved, but Shashank Arora feels actors are rarely at the forefront of these discussions. This is despite how “challenging and hard” the profession can get.

“Being an actor is one of the most fantastic jobs, but it is incredibly complex as well. Acting can be extremely adverse to mental health,” the actor says. He adds, “It’s a tough job. You have to be sensitive and strong because there’s a lot of judgement and superficiality that comes with acting.”

Arora, who was last seen in the web series Made in Heaven Season 2, believes that being a part of showbiz comes with multiple challenges that can take a toll on one’s mental health. “As an actor, you have to separate your work from your life. You have to face the obstacles, which can make you want to protect yourself a lot. You may end up becoming very rigid and harsh. The whole journey, then, is about not being as sensitive as you were when you started out,” says the The Great Indian Murder actor.

Having said that, Arora is positive that things will change for the better in terms of conversations around actors’ struggles. “Cinema is at a very young stage in India; we are just 100 years old. It is a nascent medium. So, we’ll get there. I am sure, we will soon begin to have these conversations about mental health in the creative field. And it will only happen when we do that in our society. At the moment, we don’t do that enough in the society either… We can’t expect everything to be like magic. It will happen gradually,” he signs off.