Actress Deepika Padukone's exit from Sandeep Reddy Vanga's, Spirit, has kicked conversations among Bollywood celebs about work-shifts. Deepika and Sandeep reportedly had a fallout as the actress' demands were not fulfilled. The new mom requested an 8-hour day to work in Spirit, which Reddy rejected. Post this, several celebs like Kajol, Pankaj Tripathi, Mani Ratnam, Kabir Khan and others advocated for an 8-hour work shift. But actress Genelia Deshmukh, who is currently gearing up for the release of her upcoming film, Sitaare Zameen Par, has a different opinion.
Talking about the long working hours in the film industry, Genelia Deshmukh told Zoom that it is 'tough', but not impossible. She revealed working for "10 hours a day and there are days when the director asks to extend it to 11 or 12 hours."
"I think it's fair but we just need time to make those adjustments. When you have a day or two where you have to overdo, it's also an understanding and a process that needs to be done," she added.
Deepika Padukone was supposed to star opposite Prabhas in Spirit, but she reportedly demanded eight-hour shifts, huge remuneration, a share in profits, and also refused to deliver her dialogues in Telugu and wanted them to be dubbed, which irked Vanga and resulted in her exit from the film. Some reports claim that she was dropped from the film. Later, the director announced Triptii Dimri as the female lead of Spirit.
Coming back to Genelia, she is playing the female lead in Aamir Khan starrer Sitaare Zameen Par, which is a sequel to the 2007 film, Taare Zameen Par. There are 10 debutantes in the film - Aroush Datta, Gopi Krishna Varma, Samvit Desai, Vedant Sharma, Ayush Bhansali, Ashish Pendse, Rishi Shahani, Rishabh Jain, Naman Mishra, and Simran Mangeshkar.
The film is slated to release in theatres on June 20, 2025.