Tahira Kashyap says she would cry at night while Ayushmann Khurrana would be out shooting

Actor Ayushmann Khurrana’s wife and filmmaker Tahira Kashyap has once again talked about the importance of discussing mental health. In an interview with Mid-Day, she recalled the tough times she went through a few years ago.

“I never treated my body, mind and soul as one entity. I always thought physical health was important, and mental toh kuch hota hi nahin hai. So, I exercised a lot. But I think [the cancer] was a manifestation of the negativity that I had been harbouring,” she said. “Had I gone to a doctor, I would have been declared clinically depressed. But I chose to cry every night instead of visiting one. I was living a dual life. My husband was shooting; I would spend hours at night crying, and put up the front of a happy person in the morning so that I didn’t look like a loser before my children, who were aged two and four then,” she added.

Tahira said that her health got better when she started practising Buddhist chanting and taking better care of herself. “It was only after I practised Buddhist chanting, and focused on my mental health that things changed. In a way, I’m glad that [I was diagnosed with cancer] at a time when I was strong enough to deal with it,” she said.

Tahira underwent a preventive double mastectomy last year but was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer later. She underwent treatment for it and is now on the road to recovery.

The filmmaker has also previously talked about how her marriage hit a rough patch and when she ‘even came close to walking out on the relationship’. She said that during her pregnancy, she ‘went back to Chandigarh’, her home town, ‘on the pretext that my husband does not have time for me.’

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Ayushmann in earlier interviews has spoken about his marriage going through a tough time, especially after his debut film Vicky Donor. “She wanted that I should not kiss on screen. You see, we were like each other’s first boyfriend and girlfriend,” Ayushmann told SpotboyE. “We were also going through a rough patch. She was not ready for all this,” he added. “Every relationship needs time. If you give time to your partner, he/she will feel much more secure.” The actor said that the rough patch lasted for about three years.

Tahira and Ayushmann, who began dating in college, have two children together, son Virajveer, born in 2012 and daughter, Varushka, born in 2014.

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