Indian TV actor Tarun Khanna on Thursday made a teary plea on his Instagram account to open a CBI inquiry into Sushant Singh Rajput’s death and joins the likes of his colleague Shekhar Suman who have put forward the same request.
Khanna, whose credits include serials such as ‘Kasautii Zindagii Kay’ and ‘Devon Ke Dev Mahadev’, claimed that he doesn’t buy into the narrative that Rajput was depressed and therefore took his own life.
Rajput was found dead at his home in Mumbai last month, triggering an outpouring of grief and conspiracy theories.
Many actors like Kangana Ranaut, Shekhar Suman and Khanna have been demanding that the CBI step in to solve the case. No suicide note was found, but the Mumbai Police have so far ruled out foul play, saying that Rajput hung himself.
“It is being said time and again that Sushant ended his life because he was depressed, but I don’t agree to it. He has done two popular shows and many hit Bollywood films. How can a person after doing good and hit projects like ‘Kai Po Che’, ‘MS Dhoni’, ‘Chhichhore’ be depressed? His last film was directed by Mukesh Chhabra who has discovered actors like Huma Qureshi, Amit Sadh, Rajkummar Rao, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. He had no financial crunch, he was donating in crores. I can’t believe that he was depressed due to work. I can tell you this from my own experience, we TV actors are made to work so much and we get hardly paid,” said Khanna.
His death has also triggered a conversation on the exploitation of talents in the Hindi film industry and the toxic working culture. Khanna also slammed Rajput’s alleged close friend Sandip SSingh.
“I didn’t know him very well. I had seen him at our gym three to four times. But people who claim to be close to him like his friend Sandip Ssingh, how can he give a clean chit to Bollywood? I saw his interview recently with a news channel where he is saying, ‘Kisne bola aapko ki kisine Sushant ko mara hai?’ [Who told you that somebody killed Sushant?],” asked Khanna.
“I mean how can you give a clean chit to everyone? Also his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty who was claiming to be with him in his last days and why doesn’t she step forward and speak? If the police has asked them to not disclose anything, we will understand. But my question is who are you to give Bollywood a clean chit? You are not his family. You have not made him. Being an outsider if I am feeling so bad why can’t he? I have complete trust in the police but I am upset with the fact that no big stars have come ahead and asked for an CBI inquiry. Why? Just because he doesn’t have a godfather here?” Khanna said.
