Tanmay Bhat reveals he is clinically depressed, says he 'feels paralysed'

In October 2018, as the #MeToo movement hit India, some very prominent names were outed for sexual offence. Among them was comedian-actor Utsav Chakraborty of comedy group 'All India Bakchod' who was accused by several women of sexual misconduct. 

These women also accused AIB founder and comedian Tanmay Bhat of hiring Chakraborty despite being aware of these incidents. Eventually, Bhat had to step down from his position as the CEO and the company had to be shut down. 

8 months on, Bhat has now 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".

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.