Actor Gulshan Devaiah has reacted to fellow actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's comment calling depression an "urban concept". Gulshan took to Twitter to react to a video clip from an NDTV interview of Nawazuddin where he was seen talking about depression, claiming that nobody in villages is ever depressed and that people from the cities "glorify" their emotions.
Gulshan wrote: " I immensely respect the man for his craft but I’d not take him seriously on this issue. If you even just look at alcoholism or addictions, they exist in rural communities and that’s mental illness. No addict indulges in addiction because they love it. The addiction is a symptom, the real problem is the trauma they can’t heal.”
Nawazuddin has received a lot of flak over his comments on depression on social media, with many people calling his remarks "ignorant".
Gulshan later elaborated on his response and wrote: “I don’t intend to s**t on Nawaz bhai for his beliefs or opinions. The idea is to discuss mental health and try and understand it. I do agree that his opinion about depression is a common theme among a lot of people. I myself struggle to understand mental health issues properly. But even at the risk of being wrong or ill-informed, we must try and talk about this freely. It’s very manageable for most people with a little bit of awareness. The attempt is to sift through the clutter of extreme opinions to find a place that’s useful for us. I don’t have a rural upbringing but I have close family members who grew up in villages and have very problematic behaviour because they didn’t process their trauma properly and they pass it on to others,” he wrote.
I don’t intend to shit on Nawaz bhai for his beliefs or opinions. The idea is to discuss mental health and try and understand it. I do agree that his opinion about depression is a common theme among a lot of people. I myself struggle to understand mental health issues properly.… https://t.co/7Tcg97JzWs
— “SuperGullu” (@gulshandevaiah) May 24, 2023