To say the least, actor Sidhartha Mallya has had a fascinating existence. He is Vijay Mallya’s son, and he was born into one of India’s most prominent business families. From the outside, he has had what many would consider a fortunate life. However, appearances can be misleading, and what was going on inside was sometimes a very different tale. The 34-year-old discusses everything here in his book, including the baggage that comes with being born a Mallya, how his parents’ divorce has affected him, what he’s learnt from his father’s long-running legal struggle with the Indian government, and his interest in a Hindi acting endeavour.
He discusses depression, living with OCD, why he stopped drinking, and what helped him face and overcome his issues in his memoir, ‘If I Am Being Honest,’ published by Westland Publications. He discusses his adolescent years. However, it addresses several difficulties that we all face, like loneliness, a sense of belonging, addiction, treatment, abandonment, media glare, and the hustling culture. Siddhartha’s ‘ConSIDer This,’ a series of short videos on mental health awareness that he posted on Instagram last year, has been expanded into a book. But it goes a lot further and deeper than that.
In 2016, he went through depression. He appeared to have the world at his feet: he was young and had recently graduated from a famous drama school alongside was working on several film projects. Siddhartha, on the other hand, was miserable and depressed all of the time. That’s when he realised something wasn’t quite right, and he sought professional assistance. As a result, he embarked on a journey to better understand his current mental health as well as the past mental illnesses he had experienced throughout his life.