A day after Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide, Bollywood critic Subhash K Jha wrote an article in Congress mouthpiece wherein he had said how Mahesh Bhatt thought the deceased actor had mental illness like his former lover, Parveen Babi. Babi was rumoured to have been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, a claim she categorically denied by stating that it was a rumour spread by the Hindi film industry to malign her image.
Jha claims that these revelations were made by one writer, Suhrita Sengupta, a close associate of Bhatt. Sengupta had said that Bhatt told Rhea, Rajput’s then girlfriend, that his mental condition is just like that of Babi. Bhatt had suggested Rhea to break up her relationship with Rajput. Apparently, when Bhatt met Rajput for a possibility of a role in Sadak 2, Bhatt ‘identified melancholy under Sushant’s constant exuberance’. Jha claims that Suhrita said that Rhea stuck by Rajput despite his ‘rapid descent into depression’ and even when he ‘stopped taking medication’.
Quoting Suhrita, Jha says that Sushant started ‘hearing voices’. “There came a time when Sushant began hearing voices. He began to feel people were trying to kill him. One day an Anurag Kashyap film was playing in Sushant’s home and he told Rhea, ‘I said no to an offer from Kashyap. Now he’s going to come to kill me.’ That’s when Rhea was too frightened to stay with Sushant any longer. She had no choice. Bhatt Saab told her there was nothing she could do. If she stayed on she would lose her sanity too. Rhea waited for Sushant’s sister to come to Mumbai and take charge. Sushant’s sisters tried their best to support and comfort him. But he was beyond listening to anyone. He wouldn’t take his medication,” Sengupta said.
Essentially, just a day after a person has died, Bollywood’s popular film critic pens down a piece claiming how the person who many believe was bullied and pushed over the edge, was well, ‘mentally unstable’. Sushant Singh Rajput is not around to defend himself on these claims. But by now, everyone has read these stories of him being ‘depressed’ and well, ‘hearing voices’.
In a country where mental illness is still a taboo, the who’s who of the Bollywood have already managed to paint him as a freak.
But this didn’t stop here. Bollywood starlets came together to what seems to be in a bid to absolve themselves of the collective guilt. On Monday many people pointed out the bullying Rajput had to face on hands of the ‘star kids’ or the pedigree who rule the roost. The star kids and their minions soon came out to support one of ‘their own’ (because Rajput was an ‘outsider’ as already established).
Blaming a girlfriend , ex girlfriend, family , colleagues for someone’s death is ignorant and fucking mean spirited.
— Sonam K Ahuja (@sonamakapoor) June 15, 2020
Similarly, Swara Bhaskar, Sonam’s colleague came out to defend Karan Johar and Alia Bhatt who were accused of bullying Sushant Singh Rajput on their show through mean comments and ridicule.
Parts of India Twitter blaming #KaranJohar and #AliaBhatt for the tragic suicide of Sushant – for some silly game played on a frivolous and pointless chat show (that All those people who are now abusing Bollywood nepotism lapped up) is both the height of idiocy and hypocrisy! 1/n
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) June 15, 2020
Sushant didn’t leave a note. We don’t know what he went thru. We don’t know the cause. STOP taking out ur frustration using the pain of a troubled person. He didn’t leave a note! Get it? He didn’t want to talk about it. He’s gone. Let him have his peace & his family privacy. 2/n
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) June 15, 2020
Times of India group’s entertainment arm, Zoom TV put put a post where they said how Rajput’s social media account was ‘infamous’ for ‘weird posts’.
Zoom has now deleted this tweet.
Essentially, because Rajput had Vincent Van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night as his Twitter cover image and had photos of celestial bodies. Because how can someone be intelligent in an industry where where being smart is mocked at.
And while we may never know what drove Sushant Singh Rajput over the edge, efforts already seem to be in motion to prove that he was crazy, mentally unstable and derail the conversation that the deep, dark world of Bollywood is full of toxic people who perhaps drove a young talented boy to suicide. Because why give dignity to the dead when you have your gang to save.
