Chennai: A day after people’s favourite Oviya Helen, who is the reason why most eyes have been glued to television at 9 pm every day, broke the hearts of many by walking away from the Bigg Boss show on Saturday citing ‘mental condition’, the pretty woman was spotted clicking selfies with the members of “Oviya Army” at a mall here. She appeared her cheerful self.
Oviya’s tryst with psychological issues reflects on how toying with mental illness in the show may have rebounded on one of its own participants.
Even as the mental asylum episode received brickbats from many for its insensitive handling of the mental health issue and projecting the mentally challenged people in poor light, Oviya had a personal problem from it as she was made to act as a lovelorn lady with mental illness, which is pretty much what she was as her unrequited love for fellow ‘inmate’ Aarav appeared to be weighing heavily on her — even on the sets.
Psychiatrists say cornering her in a closed environment devoid of any social contact was a major contributor to her confused mental condition in the past week, when she had been expressing her love for Aarav and venting out her frustration by shouting at others and throwing things.
She was even seen opting for extreme measures like trying to drown herself, after which the doctors said she could quit the show.
The public slammed the show’s scriptwriters for ‘insensitivity’ not just towards the participants like Oviya but also the audience who could include mentally challenged or their families. “Oviya walked out of her show. What if someone seeing these shows do something drastic with their lives? The makers of such widely viewed shows must exercise utmost caution and responsibility”, said P.Bhavana, a college student.
“People tend to feel low or intimidated when they are unable to vent out the mental pressure building up inside them. In the show, she was seldom included in group conversations and that could have adverse affects. Both in reel and real life, it is the same and “victims” like this can be found in office spaces or colleges where people would like to speak, but are given no space and freedom,” said Dr. Vivian Kapil, psychiatrist, Meenakshi Medical College hospital.
Concurring with his views, another psychiatrist, Dr. Sivabalan Elangovan said, prolonging odd behaviour was what agitated Oviya as she was continuously isolated and also bombarded with degrading statements by her fellow contestants. “Any normal individual would react the same way in this kind of situation. In case the “torture” on her mind was not prolonging, she would have come out of the issue,” he said adding that the psychological stress she faced could even have adverse after-effects. Whenever she finds somebody talking about Bigg Boss or watches an episode of it, the memory might have an impact on her mental condition.
“However, the visuals of her laughing and taking selfies with her fans in the mall could mean that the girl is on her way to positive healing. That’s good. She must go for it”, said her fanatic, Bhargav Krishna.
When Oviya left the show, a few contestants were seen getting teary eyed, including Raiza and Juliana, who had held serious arguments with her. Lovelorn Oviya finally looked pleasant when the audience gave her the much-needed attention, welcoming her with thunderous applause and love echoed around the mall.
Somewhere between acting as inhabitants of mental asylum and becoming a victim of it, both the contestants and public realised how haunting it is to deny somebody their social needs. Reacting to the mental illness task, host Kamal Haasan himself threatened that he would leave the show in case of any socially irresponsible tasks like this featured in Bigg Boss in the future.
“You may ask me, why have you not acted as a mentally disturbed person in your films? That type of character in my films will not be used for comic relief. He will be the protagonist. The task in not in good taste and I am angry about it,” he said.
