My sister Alia has always been my rock and support system, says Shaheen Bhatt

In November 2016, Shaheen Bhatt, daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actor Soni Razdan, posted a message on Instagram about her living with depression since the age of 13. Having been surrounded by personalities from the world of showbiz, right from the beginning of her life, Shaheen’s account took many by surprise. Now, on the occasion of World Mental Health Day (October 10), Shaheen turned over a new leaf in her life by releasing her debut book, titled I’ve Never Been (Un)Happier. “The decision [to write a book] was a very easy one,” says Shaheen as she talks further about her battle with depression, and how her sister, actor Alia Bhatt, always supported her.

Was writing a book always on your mind?

Not really! Honestly, I never thought about it. It was the publishing house that came to me with the offer. I always knew that I wanted to write a book eventually, but it never occurred to me to write about this topic [her struggle with depression]; it wasn’t part of my plan. But I’m happy the way things have turned out to be.

The book is very personal in nature. Was it a difficult decision to go ahead with it?

For me, it wasn’t really a ‘decision’ because literally, as soon as they (publishers) came to me, I said yes. Everything was sort of spurred on by an Instagram post that I had put up a couple of years ago. Since then, not a single day has gone by when I haven’t got a message from someone sharing their own experiences with me. Then, I realised that many people are going through the same thing and I feel it helps to have somebody else talk about it. Actually, I had already made up my mind that whenever I get the chance to talk about it, I will do it openly.

Was it a painful process to go back in the past and recount it? Definitely, it was. It’s never easy to go back and erase the pain of the past, especially the ones that you have had for such a long period of time. There were experiences of the last 17 years. But in the end, regardless of how difficult it was, it helped me a lot. It was extremely valuable for me to go back, visit those phases again and gain new insights in the process.

Your father is an accomplished writer. So, does writing come naturally to you?

I think so (smiles). It’s one of those things that I have been doing since I was really young. I think like every other skill, the more you practice, the better your writing gets. I have always wanted to be a writer. So I’ve really made an effort about it and honed it as much as I could.

Are you working on anything else? Not at the moment. I am taking a break from writing for at least the next six months because the book has taken a lot out of me. So, I sort of need to recover a little bit. But I will definitely continue to write in the future.

It’s never easy to go back and erase the pain of the past, especially the ones that you have had for such a long period of time. But in the end, regardless of how difficult it was [to write the book], it helped me a lot. SHAHEEN BHATT, ALIA BHATT’S SISTER ON HER DEBUT BOOK