Even before actor Sushant Singh Rajput's body reached Mumbai's Pawan Hans crematorium at Vile Parle, voices calling out nepotism in the film industry, which “only looks out for its own and cruelly excludes outsiders, especially if their talent is seen as threatening the established,” have begun growing into a crescendo. The suicide by the promising 34-year-old who managed to carve his own niche without any godfather's backing has left social media denizens tearing into the many wellknown names of Bollywood for “shedding crocodile tears” now that he's gone.
These growing voices against the exclusive club that Bollywood has fashioned itself into have often found a poster girl in national awardee Kangana Ranaut, who has never minced words on nepotism. The fact that a two-minute plus video on the official Instagram handle of Team Kangana Ranaut after Rajput's suicide has gone viral shows the growing support for this sentiment. In the Hindi video, an angry Kangana is seen saying, “Sushant Singh Rajput's death has left us devastated, but some are creating a parallel narrative even on this issue.
Even after his death, they are accusing him of a weak mind, rationalising his slide into depression and killing himself with that. Sushant had won a scholarship to Stanford. He was a rank-holder of a tough engineering entrance. How can they even call him weak-minded?” While being depressed and intelligent are not mutually exclusive, the fact that Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh himself said that police would explore the abetment angle has added fuel to the fire.
“While the post-mortem report says actor @itsSSR (Sushant Singh Rajput) committed suicide by hanging himself, there are media reports that he allegedly suffered from clinical depression because of professional rivalry. @MumbaiPolice will probe this angle too,” he tweeted late on Monday evening, and many voices supported him for his stand. A childhood neighbour turned banker and classical dance exponent from Rajput's hometown who lives in Mumbai (and requested anonymity) also spoke of how the now deceased actor had been left anguished and angry by “the extreme otherisation” of the established big names in the film fraternity. “He would complain of how every move, every word of his was scrutinised, to link it to his Patna upbringing and make him feel small and unwanted,” he said and added, “There was nothing 'filmi' and fake about Sushant and he would just behave and speak like any other person and this became his undoing.”
A costume designer for TV, films and web-series also admitted that some felt threatened by Rapjput's success and growth. “Despite getting big-budget launches, some of the kids of big stars have not got even one-tenth of Rajput's popularity. And it was even more threatening and discomfiting that it was totally organic,” she says, comparing it to school bullies who gang up to target the new kid in class, and pointing out how some of these same biggies, who are now putting up 'emotional' tweets and Instagram posts, did their best to see that Rajput was ousted from several big-budget films and projects.
“I had met him in January for a web-series that a big production house was planning and for a while, it seemed like it was ready to take off and everything was tied up. Later, without any rhyme or reason, the project was dropped and he was only sent a one-line message saying it had been called off,” she recalls. According to her, this agonised the actor considerably and he had become worried about his career as work began drying up. “In the industry, you are only as good as your last film. With zero visibility, audiences move on and the industry soon forgets you. It drills a hole in my heart that the effervescent, ever-smiling, charm-personified Sushant was dealing with these battles within.”
Others like the late Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui too were able to strike out on their own despite the industry giving them a very hard time, says the costume designer who has worked with both. “Imagine living in utter penury and often going without food, just to keep one's dream of being onscreen alive. Even with them, doors began opening only after they carved a subaltern space for their craft, portraying characters none of the chocolate-boy types would ever dream of playing. The arrival of Gangs of Wasseypur and the mainstreaming of the fringe changed things a bit, but the big daddies of mainstream hardly ever want to cede ground. Despite making waves both here and internationally on the dint of sheer talent, fixed big-budget award ceremonies have often taken their time to find Irrfan, Nawazuddin or even Sushant.” But didn't many like Dharmendra, Raj Kumar and Sunil Dutt who came in as outsiders go on to become some of the most iconic legends of Bollywood.
“Yeah! But you can also call them exceptions in a sense. Don't forget how they went on to create their own nepotistic legacies for their children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces,” scoffs the designer. We couldn't agree more.
