SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT IS NO MORE!
JYOTHI VENKATESH PAYS A TRIBUTE TO THE DECEASED ACTOR
Sushant Singh Rajput is no more. The introverted Kai Poche actor was found hanging in his Bandra apartment and it was his house help who had alerted the police after he found him hanging. He was only 34. It is intriguing why the actor chose to kill himself but no suicide note has been found yet, though it is being whispered that he was in to substance abuse for quite some time. The Mumbai police are investigating.
Born on January 21, 1986, in Patna, Sushant Singh Rajput hailed from Maldhiha in Bihar and believe it or not, was only 34 years old when he chose to leave the world. A brilliant student on his own merit, Sushant had ranked seventh in the All India Engineering Entrance Examination and had cleared 11 national engineering exams. He studied Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering) from Delhi Technological University (DTU). Sushant was also a National Olympiad Winner in Physics. However, Sushant Singh Rajput dropped out of college to pursue a career in showbiz.
Sushant had started off his journey as an actor by joining Nadira Babbar’s Ekjute theatre group, of which he was a part for two and a half years. It was during this period when Sushant got featured in a TV advertisement for Nestle Munch.In 2008, Sushant Singh Rajput was spotted by Balaji Telefilms’ casting team in one of his plays and was asked to audition. At age 22, Sushant Singh made his acting debut with the television show ‘Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil’. He played Preet Juneja, the fun-loving and childish younger brother of Prem Juneja, played by Harshad Chopra. Sushant’s character was later killed in the show but came back for the series finale as a spirit looking at his family celebrate after going through difficult times.
A year later, in 2009, Sushant was cast in ‘Pavitra Rishta’ as Manav Deshmukh, a role that proved to be a breakthrough and for which he received several awards as Best TV actor. Also seen on Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, Sushant won accolades for not only his moves on the show but also his much-loved character of Manav in Pavitra Rishta. While Manav is almost a polar opposite to the real life Sushant, this versatile actor has worked tremendously hard in bringing to life a character, which he is really unlike. Since then, there has been no looking back for SSR, as he was fondly called. An actor who tasted fame with the television show Pavitra Rishta, Sushant’s Bollywood journey began when he landed a role in Abhishek Kapoor’s ‘Kai Po Che!.
Later, he acted in quite a few films like Shuddh Desi Romance, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, PK and M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story which helped him establish himself in Bollywood. The actor was also seen in Abhishek Kapoor’s Kedarnath, which was the debut vehicle for Sara Ali Khan. He was also part of Nitesh Tiwari’s multi-starrer blockbuster Chhichhore and critically acclaimed Abhishek Chaubey’s flop Sonchiriya.
He was last seen in Drive, which was dropped on Netflix without a theatrical release. Not many are aware of the fact that Sushant Singh Rajput actually was nursing a desire to take up direction too eventually. This was corroborated by none other than ac tor Dayashankar Pandey who was slated to work with him in Sushant Singh Rajput’s first film Kai Po Che but backed out after shooting for two days with him due to his other commitments when Abhishek Kapoor asked him for his dates out of turn.
I had the opportunity to interview Sushant Singh Rajput precisely only once when he was making his debut in films with Kai Po Che when the PR guys asked me to talk to him on the phone for Blockbuster, the trade weekly that I was working for at that time, published by T.P. Aggarwal, IMPPA President. Unfortunately Sushant Singh had become too big for his boots after his debut film turned out to be a hit and he had ensconced himself in to a cocoon of his own after the film and I could never ever get to meet him in person.
Since Sushant Singh Rajput was quite a handsome person, no wonder he was linked to various co-stars of his. If he was living with his Pavitra Rishta co-actor Ankita Lokhande, he was linked to Kriti Sanon when he was working with her in Raabta and recently he had started seeing Rhea Chakraborty.
Though everything was going alright till recent times, people also speculate that Sushant Singh Rajput who was a very private person was into bouts of depression not only because of his personal life but also because not only was he feeling very lonely and bitter with lack of friends but also offers from big filmmakers were not forthcoming in spite of the success for his film Chichhore.
