Kunal Khemmu on Deepika Padukone's eight-hour shift debate: 'Turn producer be your own boss, it is very easy to do it on someone else's money...'

Kunal, Deepika

• Deepika Padukone left major films for an 8-hour work shift demand
• Kunal Khemmu says work hours depend on one's position and choices
• Saif Ali Khan says actors can balance work and personal life

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Actress Deepika Padukone had walked out of two major projects—Kalki 2898 and Spirit—last year owing to the demand of an eight-hour work shift. The actress, who has a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Dua, wanted to shift focus on the li'l one for now.

It has led to a debate of sorts in Bollywood. While many actors have come out in her support, there are others who feel that in the creative world strict shift hours aren't practical.

Now Kunal Khemmu has also spoken about the entire 8-hour work debate. He was seen on his wife Soha Ali Khan's podcast All About Her, with brother-in-law and superstar Saif Ali Khan.

During the conversation, when his wife asked about work-life balance and Deepika Padukone has spoken about an eight-hour shift, Kunal said, "I also think you can take eight hours of 4 hours, but you become a producer, put in your own money and then you are your own boss. Then you decide, "I want to work for two hours." Only then will you know that you won't finish the film in time and I will lose money. It is very easy to do it on someone else's money. I am saying empower yourself, reach a position where it is possible for you to do so, and do exactly the way you want. But you can't say you give me a job but now I will tell you how you will pay me and when I will come and show up and work. And I will tell you how to run the shots. Why am I suffering because of my choice of working with you"

When his wife and podcaster Soha said that women do feel that they need to give more time and balance it out, to this he said, "But you still have a choice; you have an incubation period of nine months when you decide to be a mother. You planned it unless you are an accidental mother, then that's a different story altogether. Then plan it; your planning cannot affect the way the world is working. It goes for men also and it's not a gender thing. It is the mindset thing; if you want to do things in life, there are going to be repercussions."

To this Saif agreed and said there have been examples in the film industry where his colleagues and friends have managed to strike a work-life balance. He said that for that you have to be successful.

"It is possible when you are successful. I can name some of my colleagues and friends in this industry who have managed to maintain a balance. They sometimes work from 9, meaning they roll the camera at 9 am and lot of work is done in a day. They are home by evening to be with their kids and enjoy their life," said Saif.

Deepika Padukone has stirred a debate about the eight-hour shift. In an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol last year, Soha Ali Khan had told us: “I don't think you've balanced it. I think when you say an 8-hour shift, most women cannot ask for that because they understand that they would very easily be replaced. It's not so easy to replace Deepika. So, she is fully entitled, having worked very hard to reach her position, to ask for whatever she wants. And if people want to indulge her, they will. And if they don't want to indulge her, they won't."

"But she has the confidence and she's worked hard and she wants to enjoy the present as a parent, which I totally empathize with, because that's what I did. And as I said, you have to know what it is that you can ask for. Not many people are fortunate enough to be able to do that," she added.

Many actresses like Huma Qureshi had told us that they were ready to work long hours and have done so in the past but it is a personal choice and the position you are in at the time of your career.