Nikita Dutta on vaccination drive for all above 18: The faster the procedures, the better for everyone

Actor Nikita Dutta is glad that the government has started a vaccination drive for people over 18, saying that faster procedures will make things better for everyone.

Actor Nikita Dutta is on the road to recovery after testing positive for Covid-19, but that doesn’t take away the fear of getting infected again while working. And hence, she opines that actors should have been given preference for vaccination after frontline workers, though she’s glad that the drive has started for all above 18.

Actor Nikita Dutta contracted the virus while shooting for her dance film, Rocket Gang, with actor Aditya Seal in Mumbai.

Dutta contracted the virus last month while shooting for her dance film, Rocket Gang, in Mumbai alongside Aditya Seal, and the path to getting healthy hasn’t been a smooth one.

“After my co-star tested positive, we stalled the shoot, and I got myself tested. My report came negative twice, and then positive. I know I got it from the shoot only because everybody around tested positive,” she reveals.

The actor confesses that she’s in a much better position now, unlike before. “Unfortunately, before I tested positive, I was in a more grave situation because I had a fever and wasn’t able to stand up. By the time I tested positive, I had already started to get better,” Dutta shares.

For the actor, getting sick was more frustrating because it happened right when her film, The Big Bull, was ready for digital release.

“Initially, it was to be a big theatrical release in October last year, and then the pandemic happened, so we planned to release it on OTT. I was really hoping to have a screening, get together with the team, friends and family and watch the film,” she says.

Instead, she watched it at her home while quarantining alone. But amid all the change in plans and realities, she’s trying to stay “positive and hopeful”.

However, as the fear of the virus still lingers around, Dutta admits its “scary” to remove a mask to shoot a scene, but is quick to add that there’s “no alternative to that. Unless they start writing scenes where actors are wearing masks,” she quips.

And that’s where vaccination would come in, and shield them, feels Dutta, ruing that actors weren’t given preference before.

“Unfortunately, the entertainment industry isn’t given that much preference. As actors, who’re facing the camera every day, we should have been given a preference after the essential and frontline workers. Now, the good part is that the vaccine will slowly be available to everybody. But I think the faster the procedures, the better for everyone,” she asserts.