Comedian Tanmay Bhat, who rose to fame with comedy collective AIB, says he has been suffering with clinical depression.
He was suspended last October following complaints of not acting against sexual harassment allegations made regarding his colleague Utsav Chakraborty.
Bhat on Sunday took to Instagram and uploaded a series of videos, sharing how the subsequent events after his suspension have left a toll on his mental health.
“After everything that happened in October, I’m mentally checked out. I feel almost paralysed and unable to participate socially, online or even offline. I think a big part of my self worth growing up as someone who looked like me became my work. For most of my adult life I worked at a company that I was trying to build,” said Bhat.
“And having to watch the letting the office go, all the people who worked with us, having to say good bye to that took a toll on me mentally and physically which finally came to a headway around the end of the last year and doctors told me that I am suffering from clinical depression and told me to consider doing something about it.”
Last month, AIB issued a statement and announced that Bhat would no longer be their CEO.
Sharing what’s he up to now, Bhat said: “A lot of you have been asking fair questions — why don’t you move on, why don’t you rebuild, all fair advice but for some reason, I have just watched something that I have worked for last part of my adult life come crashing down. I have just been staring at the rubble going ‘what now?’
“I don’t think I’ve been strong enough to be able to pick myself. It’s been a few months since the doctor told me to start medication. I honestly sometimes get super worried that this state of paralysis is permanent. I sometimes feel I might never get back to being who I was or operating to my potential.”
He also thanked people for supporting him.
“It’s nice to know there are still people out there who are rooting for us and me. I am still clueless about any answers to questions like when will I be back and doing what. I don’t know. I’m still feeling extremely paralysed to even put out this message because in my head no one wants to work with a depressed comedian and that’s an oxymoron.
“But at some point, I just got to get up and start fixing this stuff. I owed you guys a thank you. That’s all for now,” he added.
After opening up his battle with depression, many artists came out in support of him.
Singer-composer Vishal Dadlani commented: “No rush, no pressure, take all the time you need to figure it out, but know that there is a world of love for you out there.”
Comedian Kenny Sebastian wrote: “You have gone through so much and come out wiser and stronger, this will be no different.”
