Actors stress on financial planning to lead smooth life during lockdown

Actors have shared how a lockdown affects daily show or film work, and how financial planning can help.

Vidrohi actor Sharad Malhotra: COVID has surely affected everyone financially. It is surely difficult for people who don’t have work or are not doing any show or a film or OTT project. Everyone has to maintain a lifestyle, especially actors. The budget surely goes for a toss. Pandemic has taught us one thing – not only to manage our time and relationships, but also finances. One doesn’t need to have a flashy lifestyle. One must save for the future. I didn’t face any difficulty because I have been working constantly and I plan things keeping the realities in mind.

Fidaai actor and model Ranaksh Rana: Imagine any other industry being completely shut when a pandemic hits. We can’t, because human survival will be in question. Entertainment industry, as the name itself suggests, is seen as not necessary for survival. But I remember the movie Dead Poets Society and what legendary actor Robin Williams said – “And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” I strongly believe in this. Art is a crucial part of human existence. What would be life without the colours and flavours of art in it.
Nevertheless, it is real. The struggle is real. Yes when an entire industry comes to a stand still, thousands if not lakhs of people are struggling in day-to-day lives, forget savings. It is quite difficult to manage finances for those who are solely dependent on continuous inflow. If the inflow stops, what do you do? We have several examples across the globe and a few in India too where entire series or movies have been shot virtually. It’s not widespread yet but I am hopeful that things will evolve with the changing times and the new normal is adopted to stay afloat during these difficult times of lockdown.

Baap of Special Services actress Harshali Zine: Being part of the industry for more than a decade, I have made enough money and have enough savings to survive any black swan event. I also have passive income coming in, hence there is absolutely no pressure to take up a project for money. I take my own time to choose the right projects that fits my requirements. I have worked a lot in 13 years and now I’m yearning to do only meaningful projects that would satisfy my creative palette. Big relief for me is, I’m single and my only responsibility is to take care of my needs. Also, the third wave lockdown is not shocking at all. It was always anticipated. They had made it quite clear in the news. One of the life lessons I have learnt is to always be mentally prepared for worst case scenarios.

Bade Acche Lagte Hai actor Aman Maheshwari: Due to the lockdown there was no work and the rent and all the other expenses were still there since living in Mumbai is quite expensive. When you’re living in a rented accommodation, you are coming from a different city and all your savings just go on a toss. It’s just embarrassing to ask for money from your parents so, yes I’m very blessed that I have a very supportive family because of which I was able to cope with the circumstances. As of now I don’t feel I face any difficulties, but yes in this industry, money comes after a few days. It’s not like you work today and you’ll get the money by the end of the month. You have to wait for a few extra weeks to get paid. And there are still a lot of my payments that I have not received and this is about the time from before lockdown so I think it’s a part and parcel.

Sacred Games actor Saanand Verma: Due to the lockdown daily shows and films get affected and we all face financial issues. I get a call every now and then from my co-actors or colleagues for financial help and I always try to help them. Lots of financial issues are there because people are not working as number of working days are getting reduced and the monthly income is definitely getting affected with time. We need to take care of the basic necessities and not do anything which is very expensive. Whatever can be done we should postpone it, things which are of high expenditure. Postpone anything which is expensive, and do anything now which is very important and we should plan our finances accordingly because financial planning is very important in these times because everything is very uncertain. We should be prepared for a rainy day. Think one thing that this is just a phase and everything is going to pass and we’re going to see the new times and sunrise with hopes, shinier and brighter if we keep our hopes alive and plan everything.