Published 19:15 IST, October 14th 2019
Deepika Padukone's mental health foundation wins award of $50,000
Deepika Padukone's foundation TLLLF wins an award for fighting mental illness taboo. The foundation won $50,000 as an award as a recognition for their work
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Deepika Padukone, one of the most renowned actors of Bollywood, had stepped forward to share the struggle she had to go through with her depression and anxiety. Later, to fight the taboo, she founded The Live Love Laugh Foundation (TLLLF). The foundation works to spread awareness about the taboo against mental illness. The foundation also runs programs to help people fight mental illness.
The award
Recently, the foundation run by Deepika Padukone, The Live Love Laugh Foundation (TLLLF), was honoured with the Dr Guislain 'Breaking the Chains of Stigma' Award for 2019 in Ghent, Belgium on Friday. The organization was founded in 2015. It won an award for the efforts put in to change the dialogue around mental illness in India. The foundation had to compete with the world’s leading mental health researchers, academicians, and foundations. The winner gets a prize of $50,000 which, in Indian currency, is about ₹ 35 lakhs.
According to an internationally recognised general medical journal, one out of every five Indians tend to suffer from mental depression at least once in their lifetime. It also says that about 57 million Indians suffer from mental illness. After winning the award, the Padmaavat actor Deepika felt that the foundation is going in the right direction and is working on raising awareness for the foundation's causes. Dr Guislain Museum in Ghent and the Janssen Research and Development started the award as a way to inspire the foundation to recognise individuals, projects, or organisations that have made an exceptional contribution to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.
Deepika Padukone will be seen on screen after a break of one year. The actor was last seen in 2018's Padmaavat alongside Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor. She will be next seen in Chhapaak, where she will portray the role of an acid attack survivor. Deepika will also be co-producing the film. It will be the first movie of her production house. The film is based on the life of an acid attack survivor named Laxmi Agarwal. The film is directed by Meghna Gulzar, who previously directed films like Talwar and Raazi.
15:27 IST, October 14th 2019