Sudhaa Chandran recently took to Instagram to share a video where she was stuck in traffic in Mumbai’s Madh Island, and expressed frustration over the state of roads. Talking to us about it, the actor says, “Jab paani sar ke upar chala jata hai, tab chup nahin baith sakte. You wake up charged up to work, but due to the traffic, bad roads and mismanagement, you get so tired and annoyed by the time you reach on set. It deteriorates our physical health too. BP and thyroid level increases and stress reaches another level. It’s not easy to deal with it.”
Sudhaa Chandran insists that her work is also getting affected by the state of roads. “As an actor, I never come late on set. But nowadays, due to the state of the roads, I reach half an hour or 45 minutes late, and it causes a very big loss to my producer. The work gets delayed, it causes a monetary loss and the stress also builds on your mind. You get choc-a-block so bad that you get stuck at one place for 20-25 minutes, and you don’t even have anywhere else to go to or take any alternative route. I returned to Madh Island after over a year, and nothing has changed,” she lashes out, adding, “Even if we understand that the construction work is happening, the problem is that there is no one present to regulate the traffic. There is no officer deputed and because of it, so many people, especially daily wage workers and technicians, lose their jobs. Nowadays, I don’t ask about my role but the shoot location while choosing work. The situation has become so dire. A lot of work I have to say no to because of the inconvenience of travel.”
While Sudhaa understands the need for development, she asserts that it cannot come at the cost of loss of work for the layman. “It’s a vicious circle, and all of us need to raise our voices as there is a level to have your patient tested.There are so many senior citizens, so many emergencies happening, how will people travel to where they need to? It’s time to wake up,” she says.
The actor adds, “I understand that development is important, but regulation is also important. You should give alternate options to keep things going, but there is none. If I am unable to travel, how will I work. As actors, we can’t dictate where the sets will be put up, it’s up to the producers. And they are putting so much of their money to make a project. But you can’t stay at home as on different levels, we are all daily wage workers. It has become frustrating.”