Vedang Raina shares that shooting for ‘Jigra’ impacted his mental health

Actor Vedang Raina, who is set to appear in the upcoming film Jigra, recently revealed the challenges he faced while filming emotionally intense scenes. In an interview, Vedang discussed how the demanding nature of his role impacted his mental health.

Jigra marks the artiste's second film as an actor, and he plays the role of Ankur Anand, a young man imprisoned in a foreign jail. The film explores the lengths his sister, Satya Anand, played by Alia Bhatt, will go to save him.

He shared his experience of shooting emotionally demanding scenes, explaining how he struggled to maintain a healthy mental state. “Alia would be in the scene, hit all the right notes with precision and get out of the character as soon as she hears 'cut'. But I couldn’t,” he admitted. “It is not easy for me to come in and out of character. It did impact my mental health a bit.”

Recalling a particularly challenging day on set, Vedang described how he isolated himself in his vanity to prepare for a demanding scene. “On the very first day, I was to shoot a rather emotionally intense scene, and I shut myself in my vanity, put the lights off, switched off my phone, and told people to just leave me alone—I sat there listening to my music,” he shared.

However, the planned shoot was delayed, leading Vedang to spend an extended period in self-imposed isolation. “Now, as luck would have it, the shot was supposed to happen at 3 pm but got delayed and we started rolling around 8 pm. So, I was in that self-imposed solitary confinement for about 8 long hours, and it really started impacting me,” he revealed.

The experience taught Vedang valuable lessons about managing his mental well-being during intense shoots. “Even when the scenes were done, I couldn't get out of that zone for 2/3 hours. I realised that it is not going to work like this, and after that I have decided not to put myself through such a thing... it is not worth it and I believe there are other ways to access that emotion, I just need to find which one works for me the best,” he said.

Vedang’s openness about his mental health challenges serves as a reminder of the importance of self-care for actors and creatives working in demanding environments.