‘Have seen directors getting heart attacks, actresses with drips on arms on TV shows’: Bharti Singh, Haarsh Limbachiyaa discuss unhealthy work environment

Haarsh Limbachiyaa and Bharti Singh spoke about the unhealthy work environment on the set of television shows.

Bharti Singh with husband haarsh limbhachiya

Bharti Singh and Haarsh Limbachiya host many reality shows together. (Photo: Instagram/ Bharti Singh)

Indian television is known for its long working hours and many actors, who have worked non-stop in this environment have shared this experiences with regard to the physical and mental health issues that can aggravate by working in this kind of space. Recently, actors Prachi Desai and Manoj Bajpayee, in a chat with Bharti Singh and Haarsh Limbachiyaa, discussed how they have witnessed people suffering heart attacks because of the lifestyle that comes with the territory. They also spoke about witnessing actors with drips on their arms as they worked on set.

Haarsh shared on Bharti TV, “I have seen so many directors, creative people getting heart attacks, and many other health issues because you are not sleeping at all. You are smoking and drinking tea the whole time. Eating the same food that’s available on set. You are suffering from acidity and you can’t control it.”

ALSO READ | Credibility crisis in Bollywood as trade slams industry’s ‘harmful’ practices; from buy one get one offer to breeding ‘paid influencers’

Story continues below this ad

Prachi, who started her career in the television show Kasamh Se, also chimed in and said that she too had a lot of coffee on the sets of her show just to stay up. “We wouldn’t sleep enough and we would just stand and say our dialogues with a straight face and it would look like ‘wow, what a performance’ but that was just sleeplessness,” she said. Prachi said that television show sets weren’t very well planned back in those days and since they were always fighting the clock, they had to put in the hours.

Bharti said that she has witnessed female actors with a drip in their arm on set. She shared, “I have seen girls on the set of daily soaps who are sitting with a drip in their arm because they couldn’t go home.” Haarsh said that things are quite different now as he mentioned that on non-fiction shows, they try and finish the shoot within the shift timings but even when they have to shoot extra, it is only extended by a couple of hours.

Previously, actors like Radhika Madan, Juhi Parmar, Vikrant Massey, Karan Kundrra, Charu Asopa have all spoken about shooting for their television shows for days on end without going home.

Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.