Comedian Tanmay Bhat revealed on Instagram that he is suffering from clinical depression and is worried he might never get back to working in comedy or "operating to my potential". Now female comedian Aditi Mittal has criticised the post, claiming that Tanmay brushed away the allegations that led him to step back from comedy, and listed instances where Tanmay participated in or ignored her being verbally harassed by male comedians.
In a series of tweets, Aditi wrote, “Damn. I remember when I had to hear on the set of a show that I was working on that I gave "tit access too soon" coz it was told by Tanmay Bhat to the 22 year old writers on that set.I spent a year saying no to work after that coz I was terrified I would have to hear that again.”
“I remember being slut shamed by Utsav Chakraborty, to a guy that said he liked me. He told the guy "Be careful of Aditi, she's been around." It's kind of why I felt so incredibly strongly for Mahima when she spoke up. Because I just couldn't bear to have MORE of this happen,” she wrote in another tweet.
Aditi also criticised Tanmay for the way he used his depression in the post. “We've all been fucked 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,” she wrote.
In a series of Instagram videos shared on Saturday, 29 June, the comedian said he feels "super worried" thinking that his “state of paralysis is permanent.”
Take a look at Tanmay’s post below.
Tanmay came under attack for his inaction in the complaints against fellow comic Utsav Chakraborty when the #MeToo movement exploded in India in October 2018.
In May, Tanmay’s comedy group AIB announced that he will step down from the post of CEO and that the company's YouTube channel is "dead for the foreseeable future".
“After everything that happened in October, I’m mentally checked out. I feel almost paralysed and unable to participate socially, online or even offline.”Tanmay Bhatt
"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 in the video.
The comedian said doctors have 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.”Tanmay Bhatt
Tanmay thanked his fans and followers 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.
Tanmay was one of the judges in the first season of Amazon Prime Video's Comicstaan, but is not returning for the upcoming second run.
(Inputs: PTI)
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