Deepika Padukone is one of the best-known actresses in India, as well as many other countries around the world. She is one of the highest-paid actresses in India and has been seen in several high-profile movies, including Happy New Year, Piku and XXX: Return of Xander Cage. She has won a number of awards, including two Producers Guild Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards, three Stardust Awards and the 2020 Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum – the latter for her charitable efforts. She was also listed by Time Magazine among the top 100 influential people in the world in 2018. Her celebrity status and global popularity have now been captured by Instagram, where she has joined an ongoing campaign by the social media platform to recognize Mental Health Awareness month.
Padukone curated a Wellness Guide for the platform as a way to inspire people to remain optimistic and positive during the coronavirus pandemic. Instagram is using the guides to highlight mental health and wellness and has teamed up with a number of public figures and organizations to help assist the effort. Ankhi Das is the director of public policy for Facebook, which owns Instagram, in India, South and Central Asia, and explains, “We want to support [users’] mental well-being by amplifying mental health resources and empowering creators to create inspiring, wellness related content. The Wellness Guide is a step in that direction.”
Padukone teamed up with The Live Laugh Love Foundation, which she founded, to help curate the global project. She explains of her involvement, “I am sure we all agree that the past several weeks have not only been exceptionally unusual but also very difficult; uncertainty about the future, loss of livelihoods, and the inability to be around family and loved ones, are just a few of the challenges facing us. And situations such as these often lead to or aggravate mental illness. I look forward to sharing with all of you some of the things I’ve been doing over the past several weeks to nurture my mental health, and I hope you find them useful too.”
The star’s attention to mental health and wellness issues stems from her own personal struggles. She had to overcome a few personal mental health obstacles several years ago, and is using her experiences to provide support and motivation to hundreds of thousands around the world that might be suffering similar issues. In addition to Padukone, organizations such as Click Safe, Heads Together, Headspace and UNICEF are also involved. Instagram explains of its initiative, “We want Instagram to be a place where you can easily find reliable information and inspiration from your favorite accounts. That’s why we are introducing Guides, a way to more easily discover recommendations, tips and other content from your favorite creators, public figures, organizations and publishers on Instagram.”
