Exclusive! Spread love, not Coronavirus: Hemang Dave

Dhollywood actor Hemang Dave is an all-time favorite among his fans. He has given many comedy acts in the Gujarati industry with films like '

Bey Yaar

', '

Bas Ek Chance

', '

Romeo

and

Radhika

', 'Tamburo' and many more. Talking about the spreading Coronavirus exclusively with ETimes the actor shared his sentiment.



How has life changed post the Coronavirus pandemic has hit the world?

After the Coronavirus pandemic hit the world, life has changed a lot in many ways because fake news about it is spreading faster than the virus. As such in India, we have not found many cases and the effect is not as much as that in China and Italy. But it is being talked about in all walks of life, it’s on television, on social media, and everything is shutting down. So life is definitely affected by this. Right now, everyone is scared of going out in public places and even work is affected as we are unable to travel without the fear of being infected.



What sort of precautions are you taking?

I have always had a habit of keeping a hand sanitizer as its use prevents me from flu, cold and many other contagious viruses. But this time, the news of Coronavirus made me more vigilant about taking conscious precautions. I am not having outside food on shoot and have been taking homemade food. I drink only alkaline water, even on the shoot I always keep my separate mug and dish for tea and food. I wash my hands every few minutes and try to avoid attending public gatherings.



How has it affected your work? Have any shoots been canceled?

My whole schedule got canceled due to this. Right now I'm shooting for a Gujarati film and it is about to complete and we have the permit to complete it before March 19. So that will be done but after that, I was supposed to do shows of my Gujarati play ‘Mera Piya Ghar Aaya’ at many places in Gujarat but all the shows have been canceled and my tour with the same play to the USA and Canada which was in April and May also got canceled due to the Coronavirus Outbreak.



How do you keep yourself busy since everything is in lockdown situation? Anything that you are doing in this free time?

Right now, I am completing my shoot which is going to take two more days and then I will be spending time with my family and friends as they belong to the same industry they are also free. Rather than going out in public places, we will be doing house parties.



How are you taking care of your family and loved ones at this time?

In this crucial time, I urge everyone to not panic. Yes, it is dangerous but fake news about it is making it more dangerous. So please don’t forward random messages on any social media platform blindly, wash your hands properly, eat healthy food, drink lots of water, avoid public gatherings and avoid taking public transport to commute in order to protect yourself as well as your loved ones. I am taking good care of my family by taking all the needed precautions. Spread love, not the virus...