Shruti Haasan opens up about how 'suffering with crippling anxiety’ led her to step away from acting: 'I was unable to proceed with daily activities'

Shruti Haasan, the daughter of famous actors Kamal Haasan and Sarika, says she grew up in a home where her parents always supported her many interests. They never stopped her from dreaming or trying new things. She also shared that taking a break from acting in 2018 helped her deal with the “crippling anxiety” she had been struggling with for years.While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Shruti opened up about how she balances her varied interests from singing and composing music to writing and acting. She credited her parents for inspiring this creative freedom, saying, “I grew up in a home with two parents who are very multilingual in the language of arts. Each of them was doing multiple things. That environment of nurture that I grew up in… I was allowed to be as many things as I needed to be. I focus on things that are my priority, but I double in a lot of interests.” During the conversation, Shruti reflected on her decision to take a break from acting in 2018, describing it as a turning point in her life. She subtly referred to her breakup with her then-boyfriend, calling it the only difficult part of that phase. At the time, Shruti was linked to theatre actor Michael Corsale, but the relationship eventually ended. Looking back, she said, “Only the best came out of that break. The worst thing was that I dumped him, but everything else was really really good. It was amazing time for me to recalibrate and asses who I was. Take the time for certain mental health issues that I needed to address. I was suffering with crippling anxiety for many years of my life, and I was unable to proceed with daily activities with that level of anxiety.”Haasan further added, “I was unsure of what I was looking for, and who I was. And that break, rediscovering myself through music alone in London was just an amazing time. And also just doing my own laundry every day and cooking my own food and taking the tube to museums and coming back and sitting for two hours and practising writing again from scratch and then testing that music on a new audience with no expectation. I would never change that for the world.”Following her split from Michael Corsale, Shruti was in a relationship with Mumbai-based doodler and illustrator Santanu Hazarika for a few years before the two broke up in early 2024.