Filmmaker Hansal Mehta has raised an important issue regarding the demanding working hours in the film industry and their detrimental impact on both physical and mental health for everyone involved.
Expressing his concerns on social media, Mehta shared, “In our line of work, a 12-hour day is politely called a ‘shift.’ The truth is, between the chaos of shoots, the endless commute, hurried meals, and barely a few hours of broken sleep, there’s little left of us. Where does our mental health or physical well-being fit into this equation? Weekends are rarely weekends. Breaks are looked down upon. Somewhere along the way, exhaustion became normalised and rest became a privilege.”
He emphasized that daily wage workers suffer the most from such harsh working conditions. “Sometimes I wonder: can this really be called an industry if it runs on the relentless draining of its people? The hardest hit are those who have the least power—the daily wagers. They are always the first to arrive and the last to leave, surviving in conditions we’d call inhuman anywhere else.”
Mehta highlighted that the situation is even grimmer in the television industry. He remarked, “On television, it’s worse, and now even OTT and films have slipped into the same pattern. We often celebrate the arrival of global corporations believing they’ll bring better systems. But more often than not, they simply adapt to the broken ones we already have. Because it’s profitable.”
Emphasizing the importance of well-being, Mehta noted, “I truly believe that if we cared about well-being—ours and especially those who hold up the base of this pyramid—we’d not only work better but live better. The irony is that quality, efficiency, and even profit would follow. But first, we need to stop scoffing at the simple idea of rest. Because without that, what are we really building?”
