BTS' RM says mental health worsened amid HYBE issues, had to rely on pills: ‘I cried all night, kept saying I was going to die'
Also read: 'Taehyung was so passionate': Award-winning director recalls how BTS' V got rid of IU's MV scene, cut his hair and enlisted the next day
While all the BTS members recalled having a good time in the military, serving the nation, RM seemed to have had a hard time. The BTS leader shared with fans how physically and emotionally draining his service had been, especially with everything going on at his company, HYBE, around the same time. Last year and even now, BTS' agency led by Bang Si Hyuk has been embroiled in a number of controversies, ranging from the ADOR vs. Min Hee Jin fight, the NewJeans feud, and now a probe on Bang. Although RM didn't blame HYBE directly, fans connected the timing and felt he was clearly affected by it all.
RM revealed that he had suffered from serious insomnia, so bad that at one point, he didn't sleep for 78 hours straight. 'They're sleeping right next to you, snoring and grinding their teeth. So… There was a time when I did not get a single minute of sleep for two days, for about 78 hours. That was toward the end of April. I mean, there were a lot of things happening outside the base. I remember thinking to myself, 'Oh, I'm going to die at this rate.' Like, I have to keep going with the daily schedule, but I'm running on no sleep. I'd be lying down and—those of you who have insomnia know what I'm talking about. I'm tired but I just can't fall asleep.'
Also read: BTS' RM and V finally discharged from mandatory military service, receive hero's welcome from fans. See pics
Furthermore, Kim Namjoon also shared that he started feeling emotionally weak. He kept questioning himself, wondering why he was struggling so much in the military when he had handled worse things in the past. 'Why are you so weak? You've been through more challenging times already. So why are you losing to things like sleep… or the military?' RM revealed he tried to push himself to be positive again and to go back to the roots, to go back to being 'Mr. Why Not?' He said, 'It was a way for me to try to hype myself up, but it doesn't really work when you're in the army. But I'm going to come around.'
In the same livestream, RM shared that he had to get professional help during his service. The therapist diagnosed him with insomnia and gave him sleeping pills, which he's now been taking for 1 year and 2 months. A day before discharge, the K-pop idol revealed crying all night after his fellow comrades went to sleep and kept consoling himself that his military service had finally ended. After the livestream, fans showed RM support and praised his honesty. But there was also a lot of anger. Many fans were furious, not just at how harsh the military conditions sounded, but also at HYBE. Since RM mentioned this all started around the time HYBE was dealing with its internal drama, fans felt that maybe the company didn't protect him well enough.
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India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
Ganesh idols: Immersed in ecological uncertainty
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On January 30, this year, the Bombay High Court issued an interim order, directing civic bodies across Maharashtra to enforce the Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) 2020 guidelines banning the immersion of PoP idols—even in artificial tanks—during the Maghi Ganeshotsav (January-February).The rationale: PoP's adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems. The result: a swift crackdown by municipal bodies and police. On June 9, the court modified its order, allowing the manufacture and sale of PoP idols—so long as they aren't immersed in natural water bodies. A CPCB expert panel has also clarified that its 2020 guidelines were advisory, not mandatory. The partial reprieve has given idol-makers like Daur some breathing room ahead of this year's main Ganeshotsav, which begins in late August and is the most popular festival in Maharashtra. Then, on July 24, came further clarity. The court ruled that PoP idols under 6 feet in height must be immersed only in artificial water tanks, while taller idols may go into natural water bodies. The court also directed the state government to ensure local bodies strictly implement these amended norms and to provide enough artificial tanks for immersions. Additionally, the state was told to form an Expert Scientific Committee within a month to explore ways to recycle and reuse PoP and examine eco-friendly methods for faster dissolution. These directions will remain in force for all immersion-based festivals till March 2026. Accordingly, the state government has issued comprehensive guidelines for the immersion of PoP idols. Even so, not everyone is mollified. Naresh Dahibavkar, president of the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti, welcomes the relief but warns of uncertainty ahead. 'This is only an interim order,' he says. 'Next year, the issue will be back in court.' He wants a 'permanent solution' to the issue of immersion of large idols—installed by more than 3,000 Ganesh mandals in Mumbai alone. Environmentalist Harshad Dhage, a petitioner in the case, too notes the 'temporary' nature of the reprieve. Emphasising the need to strike a balance between faith and sustainability, he says, 'This is not a fight against festivals, but against pollution.'HUBBUB AT THE HUBFor decades, idol-making has been the lifeblood of Hamrapur and neighbouring villages like Kalave, Johe, Tambadshet and Dadar in Pen taluka of Raigad district. Anchored by Pen town, the region is the nucleus of Maharashtra's Ganesh idol industry and even got the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2023. Across the taluka, some 250,000 people are said to be employed in the Rs 200-crore industry, collectively shipping out millions of clay and PoP idols each year, not only in India but to diaspora communities as far afield as the United States. Mumbai alone hosts some 12,000 public Ganesh mandals and over 200,000 household idols—most of them made from PoP and sourced from this Ganesh worship in Maharashtra was a modest, private ritual, with small, hand-crafted idols made from local clay. But in the 1890s, nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak elevated the festival into a public spectacle—an instrument of anti-colonial solidarity. Pen's transformation into an idol-making hub gathered pace in the 1950s, propelled by its location between Mumbai and Pune, and the availability of clay. A crucial shift came when local sculptor N.G. 'Rajabhau' Deodhar experimented with PoP, initially to embellish decorative images with finer detailing. Cultural cues added fuel. In V. Shantaram's 1959 film Navrang, an imposing 11-foot Ganesh idol made of PoP commanded the screen and was later immersed ceremoniously, foreshadowing a trend toward ever-larger images of the deity in households and mandals. The material proved easy to mould, light to transport and ideal for mass production. By the 1980s, Pen housed more than 500 workshops crafting idols from both clay and PoP, according to Shrikant Deodhar, Rajabhau's nephew and a fourth-generation sculptor. In the 1990s, outlying villages, with their cheaper land and abundant labour, joined the fray. In Hamrapur, farmlands long eroded by saline ingress have given way to gleaming bungalows—quiet monuments to the prosperity the idol trade has brought. In this belt, artisans are organically initiated into the craft as January court order, however, had sent tremors through the region. Many workshops suspended work entirely. 'We lost three critical months,' says Jagdish Patil, president of the Shri Ganesh Murtikar Utkarsha Mandal, representing about 600 workshops in Hamrapur. 'We usually produce around a million idols every year. This time, it may drop to 800,000.' THE PoP VS CLAY DEBATEadvertisementThe economics is unforgiving. Most manufacturers take loans to buy raw materials. For, while wholesale buyers settle dues post-festival, vendors supplying PoP, paint and coir insist on advance payments. 'Customers are fewer this year. There's confusion and fear,' says Neeraj Naik, an idol-maker in Hamrapur. In a neighbouring workshop, sculptor Kunal Patil gestures at a half-finished idol. 'One person can make 10-15 PoP idols per shift. Clay? Maybe two or three,' he is a key factor—while the retail rates of clay and PoP idols vary widely depending on the market and locality, a one-and-a-half-foot tall clay idol typically costs around Rs 3,000, compared to Rs 2,000 for a similarly sized PoP idol at the lower end of the product line. Patil and others maintain that PoP idols are not just more durable and cost-effective but more aesthetically consistent. 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