Published 17:53 IST, July 2nd 2019
Comedian Aditi Mittal alleges harassment by Tanmay Bhat's 'fan boys' after countering his tearful video breaking silence on the #MeToo controversy
Comedian-writer Tanmay Bhat revealed he is suffering from clinical depression and is worried he might never get back to being who he was or "operating to my potential" on Sunday.
Comedian-writer Tanmay Bhat revealed he is suffering from clinical depression and is worried he might never get back to being who he was or "operating to my potential" on Sunday.
Bhat was under attack for his inaction in the complaints against comic Utsav Chakraborty during the #MeToo movement in October 2018.
While Tanmay received support and love from his colleagues, stand-up comedy industry and B-Town celebrities, Aditi Mittal took to her Twitter handle to criticise Bhat over his video.
Accusing Tanmay of playing the 'depression victim' card, Mittal wrote: "We've all been screwed over by life. But apparently depression is only newsworthy when someone who had a corporates throwing money at him stopped having money thrown at him."
Aditi in a series of tweets explained and gave a background of how Tanmay Bhat was allegedly part of some situations where she was harassed verbally by some male colleagues. Mittal who spoke up against Utsav also wrote on her Twitter handle that she felt strongly for Mahima Kukreja.
Mittal who was a part of AIB (All India Bakchod) roast panel featuring Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor along with the team members of the comedy team, also later revealed that Tanmay Bhat's fans are harassing her on social media.
Hours later she wrote: "Tanmay Bhat’s fan boys showing up on Insta to harass me coz I spent years getting bullied by his systems, suffered the mental trauma from it, &now for speaking up I have to hear the same shit from his fans and suffer the mental trauma for it.Where’s my celeb infested air-kissing?"
In a series of Instagram videos shared on Saturday, the comedian said he sometimes gets "super worried" thinking that his state of "paralysis is permanent".
"After everything that happened in October, I'm mentally checked out. I feel almost paralysed and unable to participate socially, online or even offline. A big part of my self worth growing up as someone who looked like me became my work.
"For most of my adult I life I worked at a company that I was trying to build. 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 last year," he said.
The comedian said doctors diagnosed him with clinical depression and told him to "consider doing something about it."
"A lot of you have been asking fair questions- why don't you move on, why don't you rebuild, 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."
Bhat thanked those who wrote supportive messages on his worst days, which were immensely helpful.
"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 concluded.
Bhat, who was one of the judges in the first season of Amazon Prime Video's "Comicstaan", is not returning for the upcoming second run.
(With inputs from PTI)
Updated 18:23 IST, July 2nd 2019