On World Environment Day today, actor Bhumi Satish Pednekkar says her journey as a climate advocate began long before she entered films. Recalling her days as a “curious, troubled, worried teenager” who feared for the planet’s future, the actor, who serves as National Advocate for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, says, “I did not realise that I will actually be working in the space or for the cause. I just grew up imagining that the world is going to come to an end because of all the man-made disasters that we are pushing our planet towards. I felt like I was a naive child then, but look at the reality that we are living today. We are living that nightmare.”
Rejecting the notion that individual actions do not matter, Bhumi, who has represented India at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), adds, “The attitude of ‘Mere karne se kya hoga’ cannot exist today. Every small action matters.”
For Bhumi, one of the most difficult changes in her own life was reducing plastic consumption. “My journey started with plastic. At home too, I faced resistance when trying to cut water consumption, but where there is a will, there is a way.”
Asked whether the film industry is doing its bit, Bhumi does not hesitate: “I don’t think any industry is honestly doing enough where reducing its carbon footprint is concerned. One of the biggest scopes for change that I can see is how do we make our sets more sustainable, because our sets do generate a lot of waste. We should find if there is a way of upcycling, recycling our sets, our costumes, etc.” She goes on, “Another part that I think we really lack is in storytelling and narrative. We are a nation where a leading actor can change their haircut and the entire nation follows that. Now just imagine if you show them driving an EV or show them inculcating sustainable practices in their everyday lives, the kind of impact it will create.”