Feature: LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH WITH Deepika Padukone

The topic of depression and mental health has often been lately dealt with in performing arts in India. From movies to stage, there has been an honest attempt to bring the focus on the need of talking about mental illness instead of skirting the issue as it has been happening in the country for ages.

Popular Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone can be credited with bringing the conversation in the mainstream by talking about her own battle with depression. Soon enough both popular media as well as theatre too took to talking about the need to address the issue both in form of stories and performances.

An extension of one such attempt was the recent first edition of a lecture series by Deepika Padukone herself. The Live, Love, Laugh Foundation (TLLLF), a charitable trust that was set up in 2015 to give hope to every person experiencing stress, anxiety and depression (SAD), held the first edition of Live, Love, Laugh - a lecture series with Deepika Padukone. The aim of the annual event was to steer and shape the conversation on mental health and advance understanding on the topic.

The maiden lecture was delivered by Pulitzer prize-winning author & Padma Shri Awardee, Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee.

The lecture was attended by key stakeholders and decision-makers from different sectors including Indu Bhushan, CEO, Ayushman Bharat; Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog; Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology; Dr Balaram Bhargava, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research; Professor Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director of the Translational Health Science & Technology Institute and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.