Rajshri Deshpande: Social work is not any easier for a celebrity, says the actor and activist

For actor Rajshri Deshpande, social work is a moral responsibility. In this HealthShots interview, she speaks candidly about her journey.

On days when Rajshri Deshpande is missing from the cameras, she may be busy making villages and villagers independent. An actor and activist who comes from a farming family in Aurangabad, Rajshri has indelible memories of roaming the farms, playing in the fields and growing up around the crops. Naturally sensitive to the needs of rural India, she has made strides in creating and supporting sustainable solutions for water, sanitation, education and more in villages. To be honest – social work is not a by-product of her celebrity status.

Seeing her family members struggling under drought conditions and the impact of urban development, Rajshri Deshpande felt impelled to make a change. While she has appeared in strong roles on screen in projects such as Angry Indian Goddesses, Sacred Games, S. Durga, Manto and most recently Trial By Fire, off screen she is also a powerful example of “where there is a will, there is also a will way’.

In 2018 she founded her NGO Nabanghan Foundation for rural renewal and community building to empower villages. Since then there has been no turning back. In an interview with Health Shots, Rajshri Deshpande talks about the need for people to work locally, her mother’s role in pushing her to make change and what social work means to her.

Excerpts from the interview with Rajshri Deshpande

1. What are your childhood memories of growing up in a village?

Rajshri Deshpande: I spent my childhood in Aurangabad in the Marathwada region, Maharashtra. I spent my summer holidays in the villages. So my strongest childhood memory was of roaming the farms and growing up with the crops.

I witnessed the struggles of a farmer first hand. My own father suffered from drought and many other problems. But at the time I was very young and didn’t know what was really happening. Sookha padaa hota thha and we played in 45-48 degrees Celsius with no chappals. My childhood was such that even if we got a thorn in our foot, we didn’t have tears in our eyes. Mitti lagaa dete thhe, Patta lagaa dete thhe and off to play! We used to eat mangoes and get pimples on our faces because of the heat. Growing up, I learned what drought is, but then you get into the usual protocol of life.

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I moved to Pune for my degree and have worked in advertising for many years, I have also done theatre, mimicry and dance. But I always felt like something was missing… I wasn’t happy.

2. What drove you to go back to your roots and work towards the betterment of the villages?

Rajshri Deshpande: When I devoted myself to theater and was closely associated with the literature of Munshi Premchand, Uday Prakash, Vijay Tendulkar and GD Madgulkar, they took me to where my villages were… If you read, it affects you. When you do something, it touches you deeply and then you start questioning. During my childhood, I never understood why my maternal uncle was suffering, growing different plants and why the meetings took place. After going to Mumbai I went back to my roots and sat with my parents and understood the basic reality. I have learned that there is government policy but no bridge to reach the people.

When the earthquake struck Nepal in 2015, I volunteered to work there. My mother was very happy, but she told me that if you don’t work consistently towards sustainable change, there will be no change. She said, “Aage kya?” and that made me understand that temping didn’t make sense. We need to work on sustainable change and for that I needed commitment, planning and research. And parallel to my film work, I began to devote myself to social work.

The education of the children is important to Rajshri. Image Courtesy: Instagram/ Rajshri Deshpande

3. What motivates you to bring about change?

Rajshri Deshpande: When I started, my mom said, start small and don’t think you can do everything! She suggested, “Go ahead and see if it’s possible, how much time can you devote, and even if you want to devote that time, can you work on it consistently?” Water was the first thing I did in a village worked with the help of some friends. At first, the villagers didn’t trust me. But after 4-5 months they felt kuchh toh kar rahi hai ladki. Gradually the whole village came together and we began to see slow but steady changes.

I felt ‘ho gaya’! But my mother again asked me a question: “Do you think water will change everything?” She emphasized the need for holistic development—health care, education, community farming and more. I have focused on preparing leaders to move the work forward and today they work closely with government agencies.

4. Your mother clearly played an important role in making you the woman you are today.

Rajshri Deshpande: You know, if you look at a farmer’s family, it’s the woman who knows more about farming than the farmer. Usually when we speak of a farmer it is the man who keeps the hay or the man who plows the fields, but a woman actually does more work than the man on the farm. My mother also comes from a farming family. She was the first register in her village. She saw people suffering and that is why she chose education as the way forward.

From her I learned that farmers need to be taught different skills because they cannot always rely on nature. My father became depressed when his farm was affected due to his dependence on it. If he had done another deal, he could have saved himself both.

Rajshri Deshpande’s mother played an important role in her life. Courtesy of Instagram/Rajshri Deshpande

5. Many celebrities raise funds, but not many of them work locally like you. How much more enjoyable is it?

Rajshri Deshpande: I can’t comment on people who are fundraising. But I have the feeling that we don’t have plans and people to implement them on the ground. There are tons of research papers that lie, but what next? We wrote an (Instagram) story, but did people get help? Has her life changed? What happened later? Nobody goes to the rural part of the rooms and checks. When people are cleaning up a part of Mumbai and the environment is not cleaned up, kuch toh gadbad hai na! We can’t really find the culprit!

People like to brush the dirt under the carpet, but that doesn’t remove the dirt. Eventually the carpet will be full. We have to work on the implementation.

6. How do you balance your work as an actor and an activist?

Rajshri Deshpande: Few people know that I’m a celebrity. In the villages, people don’t really know that I work in film. Sab mujhe ‘Taai’ bulaate hain. I’m a social worker there. Also, I don’t look the same on the ground as I do on screen. On the contrary, those who know me feel that if “Rajshri can do this, so can we”. Then I give them the suggestion to start small. I’m also struggling financially as an actor… So it’s nothing like fame hun toh aasan hai mere liye!

7. How do you define social work?

Rajshri Deshpande: I don’t know what social work is. For me it is a space of humanity. It’s a moral responsibility everyone has to realize that if people around me don’t have food or education, what do I do about it? If there’s anything I can do about it, I should. Some people call me an activist, environmentalist, social reformer and philanthropist… I don’t know what term to use for myself because to me it’s all just work… it’s a moral responsibility.

8. Any message on women’s empowerment?

Rajshri Deshpande: Not just for women, I have a message for every human being, including the LGBTQI community. You should be kind – to yourself and to others. be there for others Hear. Speak. Tell people what’s up. Understand yourself and stay away from negativity and toxicity. What will help you is how kind you are to yourself or to your body. Stay true to yourself and follow what you feel like doing!

(Rajshri Deshpande is nominated for the Health Shots She Slays Awards in the Social Cause Champion category. To vote for her or to rate our other nominees, please see She Slays Awards Nominations.)