Did Bollywood and psychiatry kill Sushant Singh Rajput?

Sushant Singh Rajput (SSR), a rising Bollywood star and a versatile actor, had made his journey from theatre to films, but he ended his life because of certain inconspicuous facts. Bollywood is a tempting industry, where many people are struggling to fulfil their dreams, but not everyone gets lucky here!

The Journey:

SSR was born in the capital city of Bihar, known as Patna in India. He attended St. Karen's High School in Patna and Kulachi Hansraj Model School in Delhi. His family moved to Delhi in 2002 but his mother died in the same year. Because of that, he went into depression, but SSR was a strong boy, and he carried on his education with firm determination. He had ranked seventh in the DCE Entrance Exam in 2003, and secured admission in the Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) class in Delhi College of Engineering (DEC). He was very good at studies and cleared as many as 11 engineering entrance exams, including that for the Indian School of Mines, and was also a National Olympiad Winner in Physics. However, his passion for acting and dance, gradually deprived him from engineering. SSR started attending the Shiamak Davar's dance classes and also learned acting while he was doing his engineering course in Delhi. As he spent more time after acting and dancing, he couldn't carry on his studies properly, and left DCE without completing the engineering course.

SSR moved to Mumbai to start his acting career and joined Nadira Babbar's Ekjute theatre group. At that time he was featured in the TV advertisement of Nestle Munch, which became popular throughout India. In 2008, Balaji Telefilms discovered his acting talent while he was performing for Ekjute and invited him for an audition. He was selected by Balaji Telefilms for the series called Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil, which was aired on Star Plus (TV channel) in 2008, and casted the role of Preet Juneja. However, his character was killed quite early in the show but as he was very popular among his viewers, his character was brought back for the series in the form of a spirit. After this, SSR got a chance in many other TV series and reality shows like Ekta Kapoor's Pavitra Rishta (Zee TV), Zara Nachke Dikha 2 (Star Plus) and Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 4 (Sony TV).

SSR decided to quit TV shows and pursue a filmmaking course abroad. He was auditioned for Abhishek Kapoor's Kai Po Che and got selected to play one of the three leads, along with Rajkumar Rao and Amit Sadh. After the release of that film in 2013, SSR's journey into Bollywood films started, and he appeared in many films like Shuddh Desi Romance (2013), PK (2014), Detective Byomkesh Bakshy (2015), M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), Raabta (2017), Welcome to New York (2018), Kedarnath (2018), Sonchiriya (2019), Chhichhore (2019) and Drive (2019). His last film was Dil Bechara (2020) and in this film he was casted with a new actress – Sanjana Sanghi, but unfortunately SSR died before the release of the film.

Bollywood – The Spider Web:

Bollywood is the world's largest film producing industry and billions of its cinema tickets are sold worldwide. Since the 20th century, this industry has been entertaining people around the country and making huge financial profits. Anyone who gets a chance to be a part of this industry, finds a way to earn some money. As talent, glamour and luck plays an important role here, not everyone wins the jackpot! Films like Anmol Ghadi (1946) and Barsaat (1949), were the top grossing films of 40s. Both of them had a gross revenue of Rs 1-2 crore and had a lot of income during that time. Today, films like Dangal (2016) and Baahubali-2 (2017), earned more than Rs 500 crore. This revenue of films will go on increasing and the filmmakers also care about this income only. They don't care about the future and dignity of the actor/actress or any artist involved in the film. Many youngsters from various backgrounds dream of becoming a Bollywood celebrity but they have no realisation of what this industry can do to their career. Boys and girls from various parts of the country are struggling in this industry to make a dream career, but not everyone gets the chance to fulfil their dream. Here, a person may be good looking and talented but still struggles a lot. This is happening not only with the struggling actors/actresses but also with singers and musicians. This industry is not a fair place, and if someone's father/mother is a Bollywood celebrity then it becomes easy for that person to get a chance in Bollywood films. This has happened to actors/actresses like Abhishek Bachchan, Varun Dhawan, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, and Janhvi Kapoor… and the list goes on. They all got the chance to become a Bollywood star only because their father/mother is a celebrity and has good relation with the Bollywood industry. They also get proper training support from the Bollywood professionals. Moreover, many actors/actresses are selected for films if they are good looking and from a modelling background. Actresses like Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma and Taapsee Pannu, got selected in films because they were good looking models. Now the question is – if they were only models, then how come they got into films without doing any filmmaking course? The answer lies in Bollywood itself, because here, only the glamour counts! One who is good looking and glamorous can become a Bollywood celebrity, but if someone is not a glamorous model, then he/she might have to knock on many doors to get a chance in Bollywood. Matching films are offered to such actors/actresses because of their good relationship with the filmmakers, and that's why it becomes easy for them to perform in such films, even without having any acting experience. A film is watched not only for glamour but also because of the script. A good script can make a film go superhit, but it's the writer who writes the script. Even though a film runs well in the cinemas, the writer is not brought to light, and also not paid much for his work.

In case of playback singers also, the same thing is happening, and those artists who have family relations with Bollywood or any music company, gets more importance than those, who are struggling for years to peer, even with a good voice and talent. Singers like Tulsi Kumar and Dhvani Bhanushali were promoted by T-series because somehow their father belongs to that company. However, singers like Sonu Nigam took years of hard work to get his songs published through a music company like T-series. During the 80s and 90s, a playback singer for a film was chosen based on the matching voice of the actor/actress of a film, but nowadays the singer is selected based on their personal relationship and marketing factors. That's why, in most films we find it awkward when any actor/actress sings a song that doesn't match with their voice, but do the filmmakers really care about that? Nowadays, filmmakers only care about making money from their films and don't care about the actor's pride. Recently, the Bollywood's popular playback singer – Sonu Nigam, said on his YouTube vlog (18-June-2020), that most of his recorded songs were being dubbed by other artists like Arijit Singh without his consent. So, if such partiality can happen to such a well-established singer of Bollywood, then just imagine what could happen to other struggling artists out there. In the same way most films are offered to actors/actresses who are personally liked by the lucrative filmmakers but the ones who are not on their list, get only the dog-bone.

SSR also must have faced such nepotism of Bollywood, and this is not just a money-minded industry but also a spider that will trap you in its web and can make you struggle until you realise that it's too late.

Psychiatry – The Friendly Killer:

How is your mind? Are you getting good sleep? These are the two most common questions most psychiatrists ask to their patients to diagnose their mental condition. Psychiatrists are able to detect mental disorders by asking various questions but are they giving any proper medical treatment? Most psychiatrists prescribe psychotropic drugs (medicines for psychiatric problems) but such drugs are dangerous. Any psychotropic drug can cause severe side-effects, and could cause more additional mental and physical problems. Such drugs can cause tolerance with time and the dose needs to be increased again and again to get the therapeutic effect. Additionally, psychotropic drugs have dependency and addiction. That's why if someone stops taking any psychotropic drug – it causes withdrawal symptoms, and can make the mental condition worse. People who take psychotropic drugs like antidepressants or antipsychotics could commits suicide, as a result of withdrawal, when they stop taking the pills suddenly. Some doctors and psychiatrists abuse patients with psychotropic drugs. At first they get friendly with the patients, but later start doing prescription drug abuse. Because of this reason, the Citizens Commission of Human Rights (CCHR) – a non-profit organization established in the USA, is spreading awareness about the drawbacks of psychotropic drugs, and dealing with such drug abuse worldwide. If SSR was on psychotropic drug then that could be one reason for his suicide.

SSR was a multi-talented person and had interest in science and fine arts. He just started his career in the Bollywood industry, but he ended his life before getting the stardom. There may be many reasons behind his death, but Bollywood and psychiatry could be one of them. However, I hope that such a thing won't happen to anyone again, and one should think very carefully before starting a career in Bollywood!

– Debojit Acharjee (Software Engineer/Writer)

debojitacharjee@gmail.com