Actress Deepika Padukone, in an exclusive interview with NDTV, opened up about her life during COVID lockdown and she "changed" as a person after she and her family contracted the virus. Deepika Padukone revealed she and her family had COVID at the same time during the second lockdown and it took her a while to return to work after recovering from the virus because her "mind wasn't working." The actress also described that phase as "very difficult." Deepika Padukone, when asked during the interview with NDTV if the coronavirus pandemic changed her fundamentally as a person, said: "100 percent because I think lockdown one was very, very different. It was all of us trying to figure what had come upon us. And trying to understand how to navigate our lives around this new wave. Lockdown two was also very different because everyone in my family, including me had COVID at the same time."
She added that after she recovered from COVID-19, she was "unrecognizable completely": "I don't think anyone could make sense of what was going on at that time because every single person, not just in India but around the world was trying to grapple what was happening. Life after COVID changed for me because physically, I was unrecognizable completely... I think (due to) the medication I was given, the steroids that I was put on. So COVID in itself was weird, your body feels different, your mind feels different."
Speaking about her life after COVID-19, Deepika Padukone told NDTV: "I felt that when I had the illness it was still okay but after that, I needed to take two months off work because my mind wasn't working. So, I think that phase for me was very, very difficult."
Watch Deepika Padukone's interview with NDTV here:
Deepika Padukone and her husband and actor Ranveer Singh stayed at their residence in Mumbai during the first COVID lockdown. Earlier this year, when the second wave of COVID-19 spread like wildfire, the couple flew to Bengaluru to live with Deepika Padukone's parents for some days.
Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh's new film 83 released in theatres on Friday. The film is based on India's historic win at the 1983 World Cup at Lord's. Ranveer Singh plays the role of the then cricket team captain Kapil Dev while Deepika Padukone features as Kapil Dev's wife Romi.