Alia Bhatt’s sister Shaheen Bhatt back in 2016 announced on his Instagram page how she has been suffering from depression. Shaheen has shared the years of experience since she was 13 in a book titled, ‘Never Been (Un)Happier’. Shaheen recently in a conversation with Rajeev Masand opened about her suicidal thoughts and how being body shamed affected her.
During the interview Rajeev mentioned an excerpt from her book that said Shaheen once during a photoshoot was asked to step out of the frame because she wasn’t cute enough. “In the book, you talk about this incident and it’s just heartbreaking where you talk that once you and Alia, your younger sister went to a photoshoot with your elder sister, Pooja Bhatt and at some point the photographer asked you to leave the picture because the two of them (Alia and Pooja) looked similar, they were fair, cute and you were dark having spent too much time in the sun and you were a little overweight. And you said that till date, looking at those pictures cripples you emotionally.”
Shaheen confessed she still feels uncomfortable at the mention of the incident. She added, “It’s making me unconformable right now as you are talking about it. You know, women, in general, suffer a lot….Shame I think is the core of depression and it could be any form of shame, and with women, I think body image also tends to be one of the causes for shame. Shame is central and I wish I could make people understand that shame is central to any kind of negative feelings, depression and sadness. It stops you from being vulnerable and you constantly fear that if you will show yourself as you are, you will be rejected by society. And my self-worth was definitely affected because I was at an age where the seeds of that were sown in me.”
