From Rock Bottom to Redemption: Tannaz Irani's Journey of Self-Discovery

Some people are born positive, while others spend a lifetime learning how to find good in the bad. For actor Tannaz Irani, optimism seems to have come naturally. Throughout her career, she has often played cheerful, happy-go-lucky characters—the friend or family member who brings warmth and perspective to the lives of the lead characters. Off screen, too, Tannaz appears to have consciously embraced that role. Always brimming with energy and positivity, Tannaz, however, hit rock bottom around the COVID-19 pandemic. She reached a point where she no longer wanted to live the life she had and struggled to recognise herself. The actor says she became increasingly negative and jealous, with dark thoughts beginning to take over her mind. Tannaz has always been someone who follows her heart. She often made decisions without worrying too much about the consequences, and many of those choices worked in her favour. One of the most significant decisions of her life came when she got married at the age of 20, even before beginning her career. “I got married to a Muslim: Farid Currim. He was 18 years older than me. My parents knew that I would do only what I wanted. He is a very sorted man and a theatre actor. I got married and had my first child, who is my best friend now,” she told Hautterfly. However, by the time she turned 28, Tannaz realised that while she may have found the right man, they had met at the wrong time. “I ended that marriage after eight years. The age difference started to reflect because when you are 20, you are growing rapidly. He was a great man, but I was looking for something else. I wanted to go out and party, while he was very mature because he had been there and done that. I was too immature to understand,” she said. Speaking to Siddharth Kannan about her first marriage, Tannaz said that she had led a sheltered life and was drawn to her husband’s talent as a theatre artist. “I was very innocent. I had a very sheltered life. He used to work in theatre, and it used to be a huge thing back then. I just fell in love with the way he used to sing and act. I got married and became pregnant. I had to drop out of college because my baby bump wouldn’t fit under the table,” she recalled. “He was a wonderful man with a wonderful family. We just met at the wrong time. It was my decision to move on. He must have been hurt then, but today, we are all great friends,” she added. However, the divorce affected her relationship with her daughter, who continued to live with her father. “My daughter stayed with him, and I couldn’t spend a lot of time with her. There were many changes in our relationship. She must have been very hurt,” Tannaz said. Speaking to Hautterfly, she added, “After a divorce, you do feel sad, scared and doubtful, and you second-guess yourself. My relationship with my daughter hit a block. She had her own turmoil. The problem with me is that I forget my problems at a surface level, but my daughter isn’t like that. It was difficult for her. She was young.” Despite the challenges in her personal life, her first marriage introduced Tannaz to full-fledged theatre productions—a dream she had nurtured since the age of eight. Her work on stage eventually opened doors to television and films. Her former husband, Farid Currim, also helped the young actor understand the importance of managing her finances. Around the same time, Tannaz became the first runner-up at Mrs India 2002. “I married Farid Currim at 20. I started doing plays after that. Vivek Vaswani saw me there and cast me in Zabaan Sambhalke. After that, I received multiple offers. Then, I attended a wedding where I met Rakesh Roshan. He asked me why I wasn’t doing films. I said, ‘Because nobody offered me.’ From there, I got Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai. That was my entry into films,” she told Siddharth Kannan. She added, “I was in the eighth grade when I started doing theatre. My first pay cheque was Rs 100. My ex-husband helped me a lot in sorting out my finances. He built a beautiful portfolio. After I got divorced, I learned it too. I have invested my money.” Tannaz has always believed that where there is a will, there is a way. At a time when the entertainment industry remained largely silent about the marital status of its actors, she entered the industry at the age of 21 as a mother, breaking several conventions. A few years after her divorce, Tannaz met her now-husband, Bhaktiyar Irani, on the reality show Fame Gurukul. Recalling their first meeting, she said, “We met on a reality show. He teased me, and I found him to be the worst human being on the face of the earth. He played a prank on me. I never wanted to talk to him. He made me cry. I thought he was rude and mean.” “Eventually, he apologised to me, but I was still very guarded. Once, he fell sick, and while I was helping him, he fell in love with me. I am much older than him,” she added. Their relationship was not easy, especially because of their seven years age difference and Tannaz’s status as a divorcee. “Bhaktiyar really had to fight for me. I was much older and a divorcee. Nobody wants their son to have someone like me,” she said. In another interview with Siddharth Kannan, Tannaz revealed that both families initially opposed their relationship. “There was resistance from both sides because Bhaktiyar was not well-settled. We lived together and decided that we would wait until both our families agreed to the wedding. That same year, my father passed away. My daughter was not in favour of the relationship either. But our dynamics changed after Zeus was born,” she said. The couple eventually tied the knot in 2007 and went on to welcome a son, Zeus, and a daughter, Zara. Tannaz later spoke openly about undergoing amniocentesis during her pregnancies. “Zeus was born when I was in my late 30s, while Zara was born when I was in my late 40s. So, I had to undergo amniocentesis. It is a test to determine whether the child has any biological issues because of the mother’s age. The test was negative,” she said. For years, life seemed to be going well for Tannaz, who had always found positivity even in difficult circumstances. However, her health began to deteriorate around the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing her into a phase where she believed her life and career were over. “I fell sick in the early 2020s. There was pain around my hips. I thought it was a simple twist or perhaps because I had gained weight. However, that negligence only made it worse. There came a point when I couldn’t even stand. It felt like my life was over. My 25-year career was finished. I started limping,” she told Siddharth Kannan. She added, “I was pushed into such a phase that I couldn’t recognise myself. My self-confidence and identity were shaken. The worst part was that no doctor could understand what had happened to me. I underwent multiple tests and took so many steroids that I gained more weight. I was only getting worse with every doctor’s appointment.” “From a size medium, I became an extra-large. That pushed me into depression. I didn’t want to live my life. I took several injections and painkillers. Obviously, I ran out of work and started rejecting offers. I was in pain 24/7 for two long years.” The situation became so difficult that Tannaz began planning what she believed could be one final holiday with her family. “I went to a doctor and told him to give me one painkiller injection. It was a very expensive one. That doctor told me that the pain would not go away without surgery, and he was right. I took the injection and went to London in a wheelchair. I had become very negative and jealous,” she said. At a time when she believed there was no way back to her cheerful and optimistic self, Tannaz discovered neuro-linguistic programming, or NLP. “It was around this time that I came across neuro-linguistic programming. I took up a class because I couldn’t do anything else. That alone changed the way I thought and my perspective towards life,” she said. The experience had such a profound impact on her that Tannaz went on to complete the required training and certifications to become an NLP coach herself. She believes the shift in her mindset also changed the trajectory of her life. After being out of work for nearly two years, Tannaz began receiving offers again. She credits her surgery and her experience with NLP for helping her reclaim the identity and confidence she felt she had lost. During her difficult phase, her husband Bhaktiyar and close friends tried their best to help her find happiness again. “When I wasn’t working and was depressed, I would travel abroad with my friends. Bhaktiyar sponsored all of it, saying, ‘Whatever keeps you happy.’ I felt weird about depending on him financially, but he never made me feel uncomfortable,” she said. Bhaktiyar and Tannaz have also faced their share of disagreements and marital challenges—especially after their Bigg Boss stint, but nothing that they believed could break their relationship. Today, Tannaz continues to act while also helping others as an NLP coach. She has authored a book inspired by her own experiences, If I Can, You Can Too. Her journey is a reminder that even the most positive people can go through a dark phase. For Tannaz, however, that difficult period became the beginning of a new chapter—one that helped her rediscover herself and find a new purpose in helping others.