Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan in his house at Bandra in Bombay this morning (14th June). The end came between 11 a.m. and 12 noon. A couple of his friends were with him at home when the actor took the drastic step. He is said to have been suffering from depression. He was only 34 years old.
Sushant, who had a promising career ahead of him, was quite an introvert. His last film, Chhichhore, had done very well at the box-office. Strangely, in Chhichhore, Sushant played father to a young son who attempts suicide. His character is shown to be giving pep talk to the son after his life is saved. His next, Dil Bechara, is scheduled to be premiered on Disney+ Hotstar shortly as cinemas all over India are still closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
It is just a coincidence that Disha Salian, Sushant’s ex-secretary, also took her life less than a week back by jumping from the high-rise building flat of her fiancé.
Sushant used to miss his mother who had passed away in 2002. In almost every television interview of the actor taken by your editor, Sushant used to talk about his mother, remembering her very fondly, sometimes on camera, sometimes off it. It was evident from the interactions that he was extremely fond of his mother and that her death had left a void in his life, which he could never fill even 18 years later.
Sushant came to films from television. After shining in TV serials like Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil and Pavitra Rishta, he got his big-screen break in Kai Po Che!. His M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story was a hit, after which Sushant joined the big league of stars. In fact, with his very first film, he was considered a bankable hero. The other films he acted in were Shuddh Desi Romance, PK, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, Raabta, Kedarnath, Sonchiriya and Drive. His Drive was premiered on OTT platform Netflix and did not have a theatrical release. It is believed that Sushant was unhappy that after Drive, his Dil Bechara would also be streamed on an OTT platform although, of course, the reasons for the two films being premiered on OTT instead of being released in cinemas were different.
Sushant was a conscientious actor who did thorough preparations for the films he signed. He had hired the services of his engineer-friends (Sushant himself wanted to be an engineer but dropped out in the final year when acting beckoned) to help him develop the back story of every character he played. The engineer-friends had quit their well-paying jobs to get involved with him in his film work. His system of working with them was that once he signed a film, all his friends used to develop the back story of his character in the film. There used to be brainstorming between the friends and finally, Sushant used to develop his character based on inputs from his friends. Sometimes, the characteristics of the film character, which he arrived at after the research done by him and his friends, used to be only in his mind and nothing about those characteristics would come on the screen but, all the same, he undertook this exercise for every film he worked in.
Sushant had a promising career ahead of him. Alas! he went away too soon and one may never know why. His last Instagram post spoke about how he missed his mother a lot.