“I will always be a cancer survivor”: Chhavi Mittal on coming to terms with a life changed by cancer

When Chhavi Mittal, popular actor, producer and creator, first heard that she had cancer, she simply refused to believe it. Her mind immediately went to the possibility that something had gone wrong with her reports. Coming from a Bollywood background, Chhavi says she initially thought there had been a mix-up. “I thought there must have been some mix-up, reports must have been swapped, and the doctor’s call would come any minute saying, ‘Sorry, this was a mistake.’” But that call never came.

What followed was not just the battle to treat cancer, but a completely different struggle that Chhavi says began after the treatment was underway. While people around her assumed that she was fine because she was back home just seven days after surgery, Chhavi was dealing with treatment, rehabilitation, physical restrictions and a mental battle that nobody could really see. “Now what is the problem?” was the attitude she felt people had, while for her, the actual journey had only begun. “It was very difficult for people to understand what I was going through,” says Chhavi.

Speaking on the Think Right Podcast with Rajan Navani and BK Shivani, Chhavi revealed that the impact was not limited to what was happening inside her head. Chhavi says she also began noticing a change in the way the industry was treating her. She realised that she had not been getting work for six months, then eight months, and started wondering why. “Then I realised that people are thinking, ‘Who knows if she will be able to work or not? She must be weak.”

For someone who had always been fiercely independent and used to working through everything, her body suddenly not allowing her to do what she wanted became a source of immense frustration. “I would always think, ‘Nothing will happen to me, I will do it.’ But when I couldn’t do it… then I would get frustrated.”

That period also forced Chhavi to confront something she had been hoping would simply pass: that she would always be a cancer survivor. ‘No, I will always be a cancer survivor, that will never pass, that will always be a part of my life now,’” she says.

For Chhavi, the cancer journey did not simply end when the treatment ended. It left behind a different set of questions about her mind, her work and the life she wanted to lead. And while she admits the journey continues to have its ups and downs, she now looks back at everything that happened as something that changed her perspective and pushed her towards a new purpose. “I feel this journey has just started,” she says.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Hans India