Mahira Khan recalls being diagnosed with bipolar disorder due to backlash over Raees

Pic/Raees

Mahira Khan has always been one of the most sought-after actresses. While she has predominantly acted in Pakistani films and television shows, the actress made her much-anticipated Bollywood debut in 2017 with Shah Rukh Khan's Raees. Mahira faced the brunt of the ban on Pakistani artistes in India following the Uri attack in 2016. People went harsh on the actress with their unsavoury comments.

In her latest interview with FWhy podcast, Mahira recalled dealing with the tough year. She said, "That year was rough. The same year Raees released was the same year Verna released, and the same year the whole picture thing happened, and it broke me. It was unexpected. I'd finished the film, it was going just fine. Then suddenly this attack happens, and politically, everything gets political. It's always political, it's always political. With India, it's always political. But the fact that it would get this messy."

She further added, "Constant tweets, constant. In fact, I would get calls and very scary ones. The only thing I wanted was, okay fine, I can't go to India to promote it, I can't enjoy this, but I hope it releases in my country. Because I knew that people would rush to the cinemas to watch it, he (Shah Rukh Khan) is really loved here. That was heartbreaking. It brought on an anxiety that I've always had inside me, the depression, it came to the surface."

Mahira also spoke about her viral smoking pictures controversy with Ranbir Kapoor. It coincided with the release of Raees in 2017. The actress shared, "That was a hard time for me. I felt attacked. My picture was constantly there on their channels, and even here, I'm getting mean tweets, and threats and comments. They're like, ‘Get out of here', and I was like, ‘I was never there, I'm here, I'm home'. And people at home are saying, ‘Why did you even go?'. I was being attacked from both sides, and that is the time when my faith broke a little. I developed severe anxiety, to the point that one day, I had a panic attack and fainted."

Talking about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Mahira revealed, "I ended up in a psychiatrist's office, and she (therapist) said, ‘We'll talk about everything later, but I need you to know that you have manic depression'. This is the first time I'm saying that, I don't know if I should. It's been six-seven years, I've been on anti-depressants. I tried leaving them in the middle, and I went into a very, very dark space."