Imran Khan recently appeared in a short cameo in Vir Das's Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos.
The Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na actor caught up with NDTV to speak about his fight with depression and anxiety, and how, for "several years, and most days", it felt like a helpless situation.
On People Feeling Pity For Him
Imran Khan sheds light on his dark phase, and whether the constant questioning and people looking at his depleting mental health with pity bothered him.
The Happy Patel actor says that he has difficulty "accepting support and help", and usually withdraws.
He shares, "I tend to withdraw and close off, just self-regulate and self-manage. So, there wasn't a lot of that or coddling. I don't allow a lot of space for that. I have difficulty accepting support and help. My general approach to most things is extreme self-reliance, perhaps to a slightly excessive degree. It's a work in progress and something I'm conscious of."
Imran Khan has openly discussed his battle with depression and anxiety - a journey that he began years ago, but the challenges were only exacerbated by his divorce in 2019.
Speaking of how therapy has helped him and that he feels at peace now, Imran says, "The last few years in particular, every year has been better than the last. The last five-six years have been just better and better. And the last couple of years have kind of coincided with me feeling very settled within myself and feeling a desire to work."
What Cinema Taught Him About Hope
The actor apologises beforehand for sounding "melodramatic". He connects his fight with mental health to how cinema and heroes teach one to drag oneself that extra inch "when it seems that all must fail."
Imran Khan shares, "The lesson that one has learned through the years, through countless movies, is that what makes your protagonist a hero is not their invincibility or their invulnerability. It is the moment when all else is lost, when it seems that all must fail and they're down on their knees. That little bit, that extra inch that you drag yourself forward, that's what makes the hero in a film when you stand up despite that. And this was the lesson that I had learned. I had learned it from movies. And I guess I applied that externally."
On How Partner Lekha Washington And Daughter Imara Were "Crucial To His Healing"
Answering on finding love for the second time with Lekha Washington, with whom he has been in a relationship since 2020, the actor calls the feeling "empowering, uplifting, and a two-way thing."
Imran shares, "To be loved by someone truly gives you strength and heals you. To give love truthfully and selflessly to another also is empowering and healing. And I have found this, in between my daughter and my partner Lekha, to give and to receive love. It has been absolutely crucial to my healing and to my own growth and well-being."
As for his projects, Imran Khan and Vir Das had worked together in the 2011 adult comedy Delhi Belly, a friendship that endured, leading to a random text from the actor to the comedian for his film Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos. The I Hate Luv Storys actor made a comeback after 10 years on the big screen and will next be seen in Danish Aslam's Adhoore Hum Adhoore Tum alongside Bhumi Pednekar.