Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death a week ago continues to rattle India with a grief-stricken teenager committing suicide in a similar fashion and industry insiders coming out with their own narrative of what might have triggered the actor to take the extreme step.
Earlier this morning, a 14-year-old girl reportedly committed suicide in Cuttack, Odisha, “unable to bear the news of death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput”. According to the local police, the grade 9 student hung herself at home when her family members were not around.
BOLLYWOOD REMEMBERS THE STAR
The shock over Rajput, who was found dead at his home in Mumbai residence on June 14, hasn’t subsided among his colleagues. Director Abhishek Kapoor, who worked with the actor in ‘Kedarnath’ and ‘Kai Po Che!’, spoke at length about the toxic working culture in the Hindi film industry.
“It’s really not visible, but there was a systematic dismantling of a fragile mind,” said Kapoor, adding that the actor was desperately seeking validation from his co-workers. The filmmaker urged his colleagues to kinder towards each other and not to commodify actors and creative talents.
He compared the actor’s death to losing a child in his life and made public the personal messages that he had sent to the actor who seemed withdrawn from him.
The scriptwriter of ‘Kedarnath’ also penned an emotional tribute to the wonderful actor and remembered his diligence towards his craft.
“I have never seen such dedication or method applied to the craft before,” said Kanika Dhillon, adding that her script of 100 pages of ‘Kedarnath’ had swollen into the size of a 300-page novel after Rajput gave his inputs to the film.
Rajput’s close friend, producer Sandip Ssingh also took to Instagram saying that he shared a close bond with Rajput. He posted an emotional note for Ankita Lokhande, who was the late actor’s onetime girlfriend.
“Dear Ankita, with each passing day, one thought keeps haunting me over and over again. Kaash... I wish... We could have tried even harder, we could’ve stopped him, we could’ve begged him! Even when you both seperated, you only prayed for his happiness and success... Your love was pure. It was special,” Singh wrote on social media.
CRITICS HIT BACK
A day after Kangana Ranaut’s video on Rajput’s ‘emotional lynching’ yesterday, her sister Rangoli Chandel joined the narrative by claiming that the actor was dictated by publicists who misguided him.
Chandel, whose account was recently suspended by Twitter, believes that a fancy Bollywood PR forced him to break up with his former girlfriend Lokhande.
“They broke his backbone, he shifted to Bandra, these fake friends surrounded him, he started to date supermodels, but he was lost,” said Chandel in a lengthy post on Instagram on June 20.
Rajput’s death has re-ignited the debate of nepotism in Bollywood and the importance of mental health among public figures. Investigations are underway to find out what led to Rajput’s death.
His rumoured girlfriend, actress Rhea Chakraborty, was grilled for nine hours, while the police told ANI it has received Rajput's contract with Yash Raj Films before the duo parted ways.
All angles are currently being investigated.
