Sidhartha Mallya on wedding prep eye-opener, his new book and meeting his father Vijay Mallya after a gap of some ‘months’

Actor and model Sidhartha (Sid) Mallya got married to his girlfriend Jasmine on June 22 at his father Vijay Mallya’s sprawling Hertfordshire, UK, estate (the home once belonged to Formula One great Lewis Hamilton’s father Anthony Hamilton). The wedding came just 20 days after the release of his second book – ‘Sad Glad’ – in India.

Sid Mallya has been advocating greater mental health awareness for some years now. He opened up about his struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression on his Instagram video series ConSIDer This and then again in his 2021 memoir, ‘If I’m Honest’.

‘Sad Glad’, a children’s book illustrated by Vibha Surya, takes the same themes forward. Mallya explains that the book grew out of ensuing conversations around how early access to mental health care might have helped some of his followers and readers. Mallya cites his own example: he was diagnosed with OCD well into his 30s. “But of course I had struggled with it my whole life,” says Mallya over video call.

In the video call from the US, where Mallya now lives with his wife Jasmine, he spoke about his second book, ‘Sad Glad’, why he wanted to write a children’s book in the first place, his wedding prep and mention of his now-wife in the acknowledgements section of ‘Sad Glad’, meeting his father at the wedding after a gap of some months, his upcoming action film with Tom Welling from childhood favourite series ‘Smallville’ and how he decided to embrace and celebrate his name and who he is about three years ago. See the interview here: