COVID diaries: How actor Deepika Padukone came back from jaws of death

For the first time since she was infected with Covid, actor Deepika Padukone has revealed that she suffered from a lack of mental clarity as well as changes to her appearance due to the medication.

Speaking to the Film Companion, the actor called the illness and the two-month recovery period “very difficult”.

 “Life, after Covid, changed for me because physically, I was unrecognizable completely. I think (it was due to) the medication I was given, the steroids that I was put on. So Covid in itself was weird, your body feels different, your mind feels different,” she said.

Deepika said she had to take time off from work to heal. “I felt that when I had the illness it was still okay but after that, I needed to take two months off work because my mind wasn’t working. The phase for me was very, very difficult.”

Deepika has been vocal about the mental health implications of the pandemic, previously taking to her Instagram to share a few mental health helplines that people can turn to during this difficult time.

“As millions of us (I and my family included) strive to stay afloat, let us not forget that our emotional well-being in this current crisis, is equally important! Remember; You are not alone. We are in this together. And most importantly, there is hope!” she wrote

The actor will be seen next in the upcoming film Gehraiyyan opposite Siddhant Chaturvedi. Deepika’s most recently acting credit, starring alongside husband Ranveer Singh, was the film ‘83.

 “It was nice to work with Ranveer in a slightly more realistic setting,” she said, adding, “Not having to mouth such intense dialogues with the kind of language that we did on the past three films. It was refreshing. In fact, we had to remind ourselves that ‘this is the same actor that I’ve worked with’,” she said.