Anisha will tell you she wasn’t perceptive enough to see what was going on with Deepika, and the miles between them only made it more so. There is a certain heft to that kind of honesty in a nation that is still coming to terms with how to read these things. It also puts a spotlight on the foundation work Deepika put in back in 2015, all while King is making its way to screens on December 24.
Why this confession hits home
It is one thing to hear it from anyone, but when it is your sister – an ex-athlete no less – you have to believe it. It is proof positive that love doesn’t always let you in on every hard time. Anisha will say she just didn’t have the full picture of the symptoms in 2014. That year, thanks to what happened with Deepika, was something of a crash course for her.
She isn’t making excuses for it. If anything, she is being helpful. She sees it as a lack of knowledge, not a failing of character, and makes a case for doing some homework, for listening more and assuming less.
The role of distance and the blind spots it creates
Deepika was in the thick of her anxiety and the sisters were in separate cities. Anisha says that kind of separation is like a fog. You are there, but you are not. It takes longer to put two and two together, and you are left with more questions than answers.
Any family can relate. You pick up on the tension in a phone call, but you don’t get the rest of it. Anisha’s side of the story is a good example of how being in different time zones can make for a quiet house.
From wake-up call to action
If you ask Anisha, 2014 was a turning point. For a long time, as an athlete, her focus was on the physical side of things – the training, the recovery. The mind was an afterthought. But as she put in the work and did some digging, she saw how common it is, here in India and out in the world.
In her words, this is what it boiled down to:
– I was not clued in to the signs
– We were in different cities, which was no help
– I had to up my game to be there for her
The Live Love Laugh pivot
For Deepika, it was never just about getting over it. So in 2015 she put The Live Love Laugh Foundation in place to do something about the stigma. It is not the most glamorous of missions, but it is necessary: make it okay to ask for help, let families in on it, and put some dent in the shame.
Now Anisha is the one in the CEO’s chair, running the show her sister started. It is not often you see a family working in unison like that, with real-life experience driving what they do in public.
Why it matters beyond Bollywood
This has nothing to do with how tough a star is. It is about how you can be right there and still miss what is happening if you don’t have the right words or tools for it. Anisha is level with us: I didn’t see it, and I won’t make the same mistake twice.
So you can look at what Deepika and the foundation are up to and not see it as a distraction from her movies. It is part of a bigger change where what happens in private ends up teaching the rest of us.
What comes next for Deepika on screen
She has been in South Africa with Shah Rukh Khan to finish up on King. Come December 24, the film will be out and the press will be on it. But there is another story to be told: get in early, find some support, and don’t let the subject drop.
And there is more to come. She is in line for Raaka, Atlee’s next thing. If you have been following her, you can bet the films and the cause will keep moving in step with one another.
All the trappings of stardom aside, it is a family in the process of learning. Anisha’s take on it is as plain-spoken as it gets. The message is as hard as it is simple: you don’t just know these things, you have to learn them. And you can start now.
