When Deepika Padukone revealed in public that she had been diagnosed with depression in 2015, many questioned her, she recently recalled. The actor made the admission while speaking about mental health with Meghan Markle, a former actress and the Duchess of Sussex, on her podcast Archetypes.
In addition to talking about the stigma associated with mental illness, Meghan Markle complimented Deepika for the mental health foundation she established following her fight with depression. While many people were relieved when Deepika opened up about her mental health, some believed she was doing it to promote her movie or work with a pharmaceutical company, the actress said.
“For the majority of India, it felt like this enormous burden was taken off their shoulders,” Deepika remarked. There is such a thing as mental disease, but despite all the good you do, there will always be some scepticism, someone has finally acknowledged that.
“So there were a lot of people who felt that either I was doing this to promote a movie or that I was getting paid by a pharmaceutical company,” the actor continued. Additionally, there were publications that implied I was being compensated by a pharmaceutical business and would soon begin promoting a certain drug.
In 2015, Deepika said that her mother, Ujjwala Padukone, had advised her to get therapy for her depression a year earlier after noticing the symptoms. Later, Deepika established the Live Love Laugh foundation, whose goals are to promote mental health, lessen the stigma around mental illness, and offer reliable mental health resources. She recently paid a visit to individuals with mental illnesses and the people who care for them in a Tamil Nadu village as part of her foundation’s rural outreach programme.
The actor will soon be seen with Shah Rukh Khan and John Abraham in Pathaan. Additionally, she is working on the Prabhas-starrer Project K.