Gulshan Devaiah On Mental Illness: It’s definitely a problem in the entertainment industry where pressures are really high

Gulshan Devaiah is an unconventional actor and he has always left a mark with his works. When we look at his filmography we observe a very strong affinity to the thriller genre be it ‘Shaitan’, ‘Peddlers’, ‘Hate Story’, and ‘CandyFlip’ to name a few. Yet again he will be seen in a psychotic thriller ‘Footfairy’ which explores psychotic obsession. He is playing a CBI officer who is investigating a series of murders. We recently had an interaction with Gulshan where he spoke at length about his upcoming film, about the challenges, mental illness, etc.

Gulshan said, “A psychopath is a medical condition. All these definitions are there in the film. All killers are not psychopaths and all psychopaths are not killers.”

You can watch then interview here.

Talking further about mental illness, Gulshan said, “I feel that there is a certain evasiveness and a lack of acceptance that comes from a very nervous place that people don’t want to accept that mental illness could be a problem. But at the same time, you can’t entirely blame some sections of the society also because everything is commercialised these days. That’s why it is becoming more and more difficult but it is a problem. It is definitely a problem within my industry which is an entertainment industry where the pressures are really high and a lot of it is self-inflicted also because we have such great ambitions for ourselves and sometimes we tirelessly work towards getting those things and sometimes people do that they shouldn’t be doing. And then you will burn off because everybody doesn’t have the endurance. Somewhere it will come and get you.”

He added, “As a society, we should calm down a little bit and accept it as an illness. Many people even say that it is not an illness but in reality, depression is an illness. I think we will need time but we have to keep talking about it and have to be sincere as possible and not really try to monetise or take advantage of the situation.”

Talking about ‘Foofairy’, it will be directly aired on &Pictures on October 24, 2020.

Also Read: ‘Footfairy’ director Kanishk Varma talks on cinema halls opening again after Covid-19; says, “I don’t think they’ll ever be back to normal”