Achint Kaur: People like me who are the breadwinners of their families need to go out and earn

As tension continues to mount with a surge in Covid-19 cases, the entertainment industry has again come to a halt and facing the brunt are the actors and technicians who are once again home bound as shoots are stalled.

For Achint Kaur, too, this is a very difficult time. “Nobody can predict the future or write a screenplay or a script that will tell us what will happen. What has happened is unprecedented and so we don’t know how to deal with it or what to do,” she continues, “This is a global pandemic, so it’ll impact everything and everyone. It’s just sad that everything has shut down but people like me who are the breadwinners of their families, need to go out and earn.”

In terms of shooting and working, Kaur says she’s going to be extra careful now as and when she steps out to work.

“I’m no longer wary or scared because I need to live my life and adapt to the pandemic till it stays,” she says and quickly adds, “Yes, I’m going to be exceedingly cautious as I start a new series. We’ve to proceed with great care but we’ve to move on because we can’t put our lives on hold.”

Along with film and TV shoots, even plays have stopped staging and the 50-year-old hopes that the digitisation of the theatre sector over the last one year will help people cope with the crisis this year, too.

“It’s a brilliant idea because the more we digitise the content, the more accessible diverse stories and artistes will become. In theatre, sometimes when it comes to funding, financing, getting exposure, spreading awareness about your work, things aren’t always easy. I think it’s brilliant that people who own intellectual properties and don’t get their due most of the time, now will because of digitisation,” Kaur opines.

She herself has been a part of teleplay, Hasmukh Sahab Ki Wasihat that released digitally. Talking about her experience, she says, “We prepared extensively and did workshops almost as if we were doing a live play. Though we didn’t do everything in one continuous shot from beginning to end, there was a multi-camera setup and we had to perform big scenes in one go and not in bits and pieces. So, it was interesting from that perspective.”