Jimmy Shergill says actors are privileged, calls out workers' gruelling 18-hour shift: ‘What kind of life is he living?’

Jimmy Shergill advocates for on-set workers in the film industry, highlighting their gruelling hours and lack of personal time.

While the debate over fixed working hours for actors in the film industry has intensified over the past year, particularly after Deepika Padukone's demand for an eight-hour shift, actor Jimmy Shergill says his bigger concern is for the workers behind the scenes. In a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India, Jimmy spoke about the long hours technicians and other crew members are subjected to, arguing that their health and personal lives are often overlooked.

Jimmy Shergill talks about is fight for less working hours for workers on film sets. (AFP)

Jimmy Shergill on gruelling shift of film technicians

Jimmy said that while actors may work for 12 to 15 hours from the time they are called to set until pack-up, the working hours for technicians and other crew members can stretch much longer. He said, "My fight is for the workers. 12 plus three plus three... 18 [hours], followed by their travel time back home. So he's just going home to meet his wife and come back. What kind of life is he living? Somebody has to genuinely take care of that because health is the most important thing for the workers. A guy doing that every single day is not gonna last too long."

He stressed that the issue is not simply about how many hours someone spends on a film set, but also about the impact such schedules can have on their health and family life. According to Jimmy, workers often have to spend additional hours travelling after completing long shifts, leaving them with very little time to rest before returning to work.

Jimmy added, "Everywhere in the world, the timing is 12 hours. You should work however much you want within those hours, but after that, workers need their own time. We actors, are privileged because we might be able to wrap up our work in those 15 to 20 days and go back home and sleep. The workers can't."

The debate over working hours in the film industry gained attention last year after Deepika Padukone pushed for an eight-hour workday and reportedly exited projects like Spirit and Kalki 2898 AD after the demand wasn't met.

Jimmy Shergill's upcoming work

Jimmy was last seen in Hai Jawaani Toh Ishq Hona Hai alongside Varun Dhawan, Pooja Hegde and Mrunal Thakur. The film failed to make a mark at the box office. He will next be seen in the upcoming series Operation Safed Sagar, which is inspired by the Indian Air Force's historic 1999 Kargil War mission.

The series follows the Indian Air Force's Golden Arrows squadron, which carried out operations during the Kargil War. Operation Safed Sagar has been created by Abhijeet Singh Parmar and Kushal Srivastava and directed by Oni Sen.

Apart from Jimmy Shergill and Siddharth, the series also stars Abhay Verma, Dia Mirza, Prajakta Koli, Mihir Ahuja, Taaruk Raina, Arnav Bhasin and Amrita Bagchi. Operation Safed Sagar is scheduled to stream on Netflix from August 7.