Rani Mukerji On Work-Life Balance Amid Deepika Padukone’s 8-hour Shift Talk: 'When Adira Was...'

Rani Mukerji shares her experience balancing work and motherhood, recalling her Hichki shoot when daughter Adira was 14 months old, while weighing in on flexible work hours in the film industry.

As discussions swirl around Deepika Padukone’s reported request for an eight-hour workday—a factor said to have led to her exit from Spirit, directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga and starring Prabhas—veteran actor Rani Mukerji has offered her perspective, drawing on her own experience of juggling career and motherhood.

Rani Mukerji on eight-hour workday

Speaking to ANI, Rani recalled filming her 2018 movie Hichki when her daughter Adira was just 14 months old. “When I did Hichki, Adira was 14 months old, and I was still breastfeeding her. I had to pump the milk and leave early in the morning to shoot at a college in town. From my home in Juhu to the shoot location, it would take almost two hours due to traffic. So I’d leave by 6:30 a.m. after expressing milk. My first shot was at 8 a.m., and I’d wrap up by 12:30 or 1 p.m. My team and director were very organised. I’d reach home by 3 p.m., before the traffic worsened. That’s how I completed the film.”

Rani pointed out that while flexible working hours in cinema are not new, the conversation is gaining prominence now because more actors are speaking openly about it. She also addressed the gendered double standards in the industry, noting that female actors often need to pause or adjust their careers after motherhood, while male actors rarely face similar pressures.

Balancing work and motherhood

“These things have always existed. It’s just that now people are openly talking about it. In any profession, if the producer agrees to shorter hours, you go ahead with the project. If not, you opt out. It’s a mutual choice; nothing is forced. Men don’t have to go through a physical transformation. Women, on the other hand, go through both physical and emotional changes after becoming mothers. But I’m very happy being a woman,” she said.

Rani Mukerji recently won the Best Actress award at the 71st National Film Awards for her role in Mrs Chatterjee vs. Norway, which tells the real-life story of Sagarika Chakraborty’s fight to regain her children from the Norwegian foster care system.

Meanwhile, Deepika Padukone is busy on the sets of Shah Rukh Khan’s King, which also stars Suhana Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Arshad Warsi.