Sneha's 30kg Slimdown Finding My Balance

Why She Had to Act on Her Health

- Amy Prebble

Sunny actress Sneha Shetty is settled into the make-up chair, happily rattling off the various roles she plays in upcoming play A Fine Balance.

“I’m a beggar, one of the people at the construction site, the lady at the hospital who is waiting to get a sterilisation because she’s already had five children… and I’m puppeteering the dog Tikka, which is really exciting as I’ve never done puppeteering before,” she grins.

But the 34-year-old hasn’t always been this full of joy. In 2013, she went through a dark period after her beloved mother Rupa passed away in Sneha’s hometown of Pune, in Maharashtra, India. Rupa had earlier beaten cancer but after it returned, there was only six months between her second diagnosis and her death.

At the time, Sneha was living in New Zealand, working fulltime and studying for a Masters in business administration.

“I was only able to go home for a few weeks, so I couldn’t be with her throughout her illness,” Sneha recalls sadly. “As the eldest child, I had to make sure my brother completed his education and it all became a bit too much because I was very close to Mum.”

In hindsight, Sneha now realises she went through a period of depression. She lost contact with a lot of friends as she had no desire to socialise, plus a business investment also went south, so she was under a lot of financial pressure.