Radhika Apte feels film industry isn't conducive to needs of new mothers: ‘I don't know how I'm going to navigate it going forward'

Indian Express

01-06-2025

Radhike Apte announced her pregnancy last year while walking the red carpet at the BAFTA Awards, where her British film, Karan Kandhari's black comedy Sister Midnight, was nominated in the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category. The film, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival last May, released across the UK and the US later in 2024.
This week, as Sister Midnight finally makes its way to Indian cinemas, Radhika's daughter is six months old. Last December, a week after her birth, Radhika shared a picture of her attending a virtual work meeting while breastfeeding her baby. In fact, she was busy writing through her pregnancy and submitted her draft just a day before she went into labour.
That makes her 'maternity leave' just a week-long. As she tends to her baby in London, Radhika Apte speaks to SCREEN virtually and answers whether the film industry is conducive to the needs of new mothers like her. 'I don't think they are. I don't know how I'm going to navigate that going ahead,' she says.
Her confession comes in the same week where there's an ongoing discourse around how actors, who are also new moms, are finding it tough to resume work. Deepika Padukone reportedly walked out of Sandeep Reddy Vanga's film Spirit, and one of the concerns was her asking for eight-hour shifts instead of longer ones. Actor-producer Ajay Devgn defended the industry at the trailer launch event of his production Maa by claiming that not even new mothers, but people at large are enjoying shorter, eight-hour shifts now.
Apte, speaking to us, reiterated why she's finding it difficult to balance work and new motherhood. 'It's really difficult to work in our film industry, given the number of hours and how we film generally, and the time for which we don't get to see the child. So I guess I'll just have to figure it out now,' she says. Coupled with that, Radhika has also been dividing her time between India and London for years.
She's always had a love-hate relationship with Mumbai, although she now claims it's home, like other cities she regularly frequents. 'It was difficult to adjust in Mumbai when I first moved there. Any other big city does that to you. At the moment, Mumbai is home. I have multiple homes now, in London, Pune, and Mumbai. I love Mumbai for its spirit, and the friends and family there. But I do struggle with the lack of green space in Mumbai, I have to say,' she adds.
Even before motherhood, Radhika Apte wasn't getting the kind of roles she wanted to see herself play. That prompted her to switch to screenwriting. She's previously directed The Sleepwalkers, a short film starring Gulshan Devaiah and Shahana Goswami, which is available to stream on MUBI. 'I'm tired of acting because you don't necessarily get the kind of work you want. I'm tired of doing the same thing or doing things just for the sake of it. So I'm becoming a little choosy with what I said yes to,' admits Radhika.
'Writing started because of that. I thought I'd write subjects I want to deal in because they weren't coming to me as an actor. But when I started writing, I really enjoyed it. I didn't expect that because I'd never written before. So that's why I want to explore it further,' she adds. On the acting front, Radhika will be next seen in Dharmaraj Shetty's revenge thriller show Akka on Netflix India and Justin Lin's American film Last Days, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
As Radhika Apte explores work across formats, genres and languages, she doesn't want to get stuck in a structure, like her character Uma in Sister Midnight. 'Sister Midnight is about a small-town misfit who became an accidental outlaw. That's what fascinated me about the film,' she says. In the film, Uma enters an arranged marriage, after which she finds herself change in the most bizarre, supernatural way possible.
Was it fun to break out of the demure homemaker mould, one that she popularly embraced in R Balki's 2018 hit Pad Man? 'There's nothing wrong with playing a demure homemaker. It was never my intention to play a badass. It's about the character, the arc, and the story you're trying to tell,' she says, adding, 'The emotional transformation is the acceptance of who she is. She discovers herself after becoming an outlaw. That self-discovery is very relatable. It's not about womanhood. It's applicable to any individual who finds discomfort in adjusting to a structure or a society.'
Also Read — Sister Midnight movie review: Radhika Apte film is a bizarro-serio-comedy like no other
Radhika admits she, like many others, often finds herself stuck in a structure. More often than not, she rebels against the system, but over the years, has also found herself conforming. 'There are certain things I cannot change. I don't have a rulebook so I feel I should pick battles. When I feel my voice is going to matter, I say it. When I feel it won't, I choose to do without it,' says the actor.