Mahira Khan says ‘scary’ threats she received after Raees release broke her faith, triggered anxiety: ‘Had panic attack and fainted’

Mahira Khan said that the backlash she experienced around the time Raees was being released triggered a mental health spiral that led to her fainting due a panic attack, and eventually being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | August 29, 2023 04:26 PM IST

4 min read

Mahira Khan spoke about the backlash she experienced around the time of Raees' release. (Photo: FWhy podcast)

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Actor Mahira Khan, who is best known for her hit television shows and for starring alongside Shah Rukh Khan in the film Raees, spoke about the backlash she braved after the 2016 Uri attacks, which prompted the unofficial ban on Pakistani artistes in India. Mahira said in an interview that she was criticised from both sides, and that this sent her into a mental health spiral that eventually led to her being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Raees was released just some months after the Uri attack, which damaged relations between India and Pakistan and had ripple effects in fields of sports and the arts. Mahira, along with actor Fawad Khan and singers Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Atif Aslam were perhaps among the most high-profile Pakistani artistes to have experienced the consequences of the unofficial ban.

Also read | Mahira Khan opens up for the first time about bipolar disorder diagnosis, says Raees backlash triggered it: ‘I couldn’t even get up from the bed…’

In an appearance on the FWhy podcast, she looked back on how the episode affected her mental health, and said that Raaes’ release was followed by a scandalous incident involving a photograph, which she didn’t go into detail about. In the same year as Raees’ release, Mahira was photographed smoking a cigarette with actor Ranbir Kapoor in New York. This caused quite the controversy. “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,” she said.

Asked about the period right around Raees’ release, she said, “It was unexpected. I’d finished the film, it was going just fine. Then suddenly this attack happens, and politically, everything gets… It’s always political, it’s always political. With India, it’s always political. But the fact that it would get this messy…”

Recalling the threats she faced, Mahira continued, “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’s (Shah Rukh Khan) loved here. That was heartbreaking. It brought on a very… The anxiety that I’ve always had inside me, the depression, it came to the surface.”

Mahira said that her experienced peaked when she fainted because of an anxiety attack. “That was a hard time for me. I felt attacked. My picture was constantly there on their channels, and even here… You’re 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.”

This was when she decided to talk to a therapist, and relied on the support of her friends, family, and the ‘person who (she) is still with’. Mahira said that she was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and has been on medication for six to seven years.

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