Tricky time for mental health: Shaheer Sheikh feels there is no reason to feel motivated due to Covid

Shaheer Sheikh is shooting for his new TV show, Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi... Nayi Kahaani near Darjeeling and is glad to be back on a set. The actor shares that he had second thoughts about shooting amid the pandemic. He shares, “I don’t have any other source of income. Though I have savings to survive, but the other members in the unit don’t have that resource. My shows have made me who I am today. So, it is our responsibility to create job opportunities for them as not everyone wants to depend on charity. People want to work and earn. Everyone is happy to be working and shooting.”

With the recent lockdown, the actor says he understood the unrest everyone felt being at home once again after last year. He explains, “In the last few months, especially, every day one has been hearing of some or the other bad news. Back home some of my relatives in Jammu passed away, including an uncle I was close to. Covid has affected so many young people. All of this new and everyone is learning. So many people are on ground helping people. It shows humanity is still alive. So many TV actors have stepped out -physically. I thought I was a balanced man but the crisis has affected me. I meditate to rejuvenate. There seems to be no reason to be motivated due to Covid. It is a tricky time for mental health but thankfully, what matters is that we are getting better.”

In the Covid-era, he admits that there are a handful of opportunities for work for TV actors. The pandemic has affected him a lot, he says. “We are all going through a major crisis and there’s a lot of suffering. We can fix this by coming together and helping each other. Do whatever you can do and create resources for the future,” says Sheikh.

He recently appeared in a music video, Baarish Ban Jaana, with Hina Khan, with whom he was glad to work on a project. Though both are Kashmiris, he reveals they have met often but not hung out together. He adds, “It was a surprise for me that Hina was part of it and it was wonderful to work with her.” Sheikh admits that while shooting the video, he got the chance to experience the beauty of the valley as he had never been to Pahalgam before. “I have lived half of my life in Jammu and Kashmir but never been there. I was mesmerised by the breath taking beauty. Doing a music video is fun and different than my other acting projects. Being part of a good song, showing my audiences a new side of me and travelling to new locales for the shoot is exciting,” he says.