His last film, to be released on Hotstar, is titled Dil Bechara. But he was no bechara. A big-time producer, his director and Sushant Singh Rajput, with manager Uday, had an online script session. Picky Sushant was happy with the subject narrated to him and everybody signed off looking forward to working together in a few months’ time.
The next morning, the actor hanged himself. It was not an on-the-spur-of-the-moment decision but an extreme act that required some planning — the diligent physics student would have ensured that the noose held.
This was not the act of an out-of-work bechara either. There were 7-10 scripts he read during the lockdown, several firm offers on the table. The makers of Newton offered him a film to be bankrolled by a reputed name. Sushant was unimpressed. As an actor, it was his prerogative to turn it down. As he did many other films.
It was also his prerogative to say “yes” to casting agent Mukesh Chhabra’s directorial venture Dil Bechara (Hindi version of The Fault In Our Stars) as he had got Sushant his big screen break, Kai Po Che.
So who died last Sunday was not an unemployed actor. He was a man who marched to his own beat, one who didn’t pick up the phone when the biggest of names called him— he played the game as per his own rules.
It was Shekhar Kapur who lit the fire, pinning the blame for Sushant’s unfortunate end on the film industry. Soon, others like Abhinav Kashyap (Dabangg director) entered the fray, each painting himself a victim.
Abhinav vented against Salman Khan for all that had gone wrong in his life, right down to his divorce. But the truth is Besharam, the Ranbir Kapoor film that Abhinav claimed Salman had sabotaged, was plain unwatchable; it self-imploded. Abhinav’s career floundered due to his unrealistic appraisals; he wanted more for the rights of Besharam than the film was worth. When it flopped, he had to sell it for a pittance. Ultimately, it was Abhinav who made all the wrong calls. Most importantly, how did his venting help unravel the unique case of Sushant Singh Rajput?
As for Shekhar, he’s fortunate Aditya Chopra didn’t go to town with the story that he invested, reportedly, Rs 15 crore in Shekhar’s Pani when the director upped his budget, making it financially unviable. If anyone lost on that project, it was Adi. And it added to Shekhar’s string of incomplete films. Meanwhile, YRF completed Prithviraj, a Diwali release starring Akshay Kumar, helmed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi, another director with half-finished films to his credit. What’s vital is that YRF pulled out of Pani because of the budget, not to drown Sushant.
Money was also not a reason. His fee for Chichhore was reportedly Rs 7 crore plus a celebratory bonus. But tragically, the outsider who could have been the poster boy for hope, for breaching the rules of an industry that notoriously promotes its own, was inclined to go down another path. As if there were two Sushants.
One, the committed actor who took a year to prep as M.S. Dhoni and met the cricketer armed with 250 minute questions like, “What was going on in your head during that moment?” He hit it out of the park playing a perfect Dhoni.
The other had a Sufi-like detachment. He’d suddenly yearn to give it all up and go where the hills beckoned. He believed one shouldn’t own anything, preferring a rent of Rs 4.5 lakh to buying a place of his own.
Inconsolably, for a thinking man, the mess in his mind didn’t allow him to think through his final act. A veteran actor had a point: “It’s tragic but I’m also angry. What kind of message has Sushant sent out to impressionable young minds out there?”
Footnote: Politics and camps have always existed in the industry. Shashi Kapoor once did a cover story on it. But what’s to be understood is that an indictment of politics is far from abetment to suicide.
