Bollywood: Meet Sushant Singh Rajput's 'Dil Bechara' partner Sanjana Sanghi

Sushant Singh Rajput’s recent demise has sparked a lot of conversation about mental health and nepotism in the industry. Now, with his last project up for screen-time later this month, the spotlight is also falling onto his ‘'Dil Bechara' co-star. Meet Sanjana Sanghi, one of the few people who spent time with the actor in his last few weeks.

‘Dil Bechara’ is the actress’ first leading role. The film marks the debut of casting director Mukesh Chhabra as a director and is set to premiere on Disney+ Hotstar on July 24.

'Dil Bechara’, adapted from John Green’s book ‘The Fault In Our Stars’, sees the late actor and Sanjana Sanghi living out their love story while Sanghi’s character battles cancer. She plays the character of Hazel Grace Lancaster, a role played by Shailene Woodley in the original film. AR Rahman composed the movie’s music. The trailer of the movie, surpassed the record of superhero film ‘Avengers: Endgame’ to become the most liked trailer on YouTube in 24 hours.

Sanjana is a Delhi girl from a business family. She is a university topper from Lady Shriram College in Delhi where she studied of mass communication and journalism. During her college days, the actress interned with the BBC, and if she had not become an actress she would have been a journalist. Sanjana revealed in an interview that she and Sushant bonded over their love for academia and food.

The young actor is just 24. Before she makes her debut as a leading actress, she has already worked in 3 major box-office successes. She was 14 when she played the younger sister of Heer (Nargis Fakhri) in Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar (2011). Mukesh Chabbra met her during the filming of the movie. “As a 14-year-old studying in school, I was not remotely aware of the magic being created around me. In hindsight, it changed something within me forever. I don't remember the grandeur, but I vividly remember some feelings, some moments, some smells - through the valleys of Kashmir, the quaintness of Dharamshala and the quirkiness of Delhi," she wrote on social media.

In 2017, Sanghi played the role of a young Meeta Batra (Saba Qamar’s character in the movie) in ‘Hindi Medium’. She also played a small role in ‘Fukrey Returns’ opposite Varun Sharma the same year.

The actress worked as a feature writer for Youth Ki Awaaz before making her Bollywood debut. She has been a TedX speaker previously at IIT Bhubhaneshwar and is one of the youngest Bollywood actress to give a TEDx Talk.

As a child she had a preconceived notion of adulthood and wondered what if the path she chose in the future would become mundane. After her graduation, Sanjana tried modelling. She starred in numerous television commercials like Vodafone (Made For You) Offers, Tanishq Jewellery, Subway Sandwiches, Dabur Almond Hair Oil and many more.

Sanjana is obsessed with the film 'Dil Chahta Hai' and she did her college thesis on it.

Sanjana used to spend a lot of time with real cancer patients to understand her character in Dil Bechara. She remembers her final moments with Rajput emotionally and has said: "You gave me a forever, within a limited number of days, and for that I’m forever grateful. - our beloved novel, The Fault In Our Stars. A forever of learnings, and of memories’’. Gone too soon Sushant Singh Rajput, we will miss u.