Sushant Singh Rajput died of suicide. Reportedly, he had depression, and was seeking treatment. He was 34 years old, intelligent and relatively successful.
Somehow, we have turned his age and intelligence and success into reasons why he shouldn’t have had depression. Kangana Ranaut said this most publicly, referencing Sushant’s academic achievements in a video blaming nepotism for his death. But how many doctors, scientists, authors, lawyers and business people have committed suicide? Notably, Edwin Armstrong, who invented the FM radio. So did Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf, who were all top authors. In recent years, CNN’s highly successful host Anthony Bourdain committed suicide. So did famed comedic actor Robin Williams. Honestly, if I looked further, I’d probably find an even more extensive list. But, I feel just these names are sufficient proof - no amount of success or intelligence can protect you from mental illness or keep you from committing suicide. As for his age, just look at how many young people commit suicide each year.
We keep blaming nepotism, blind articles, cliques, and other factors for his death. Because we don’t want to acknowledge the issue of mental illness, that’s what stigma does when you internalize it. Truth is, maybe some of those were added stressors in his life, but the fact that he chose this route cannot solely be attributed to those stressors. Sushant is not the first outsider to lose work to “star kids”, if that’s what even happened. Yet the others didn’t all go this route. The difference, whether we like it or not, is mental illness.
Instead of these campaigns and witch hunts into certain celebrities, we should be campaigning to make mental health care easily accessible. We should work to destigmatize mental illness, especially in men. That’s how we can truly honor and get justice for Sushant Singh Rajput.
EDIT: It’s been brought to my attention that I’ve created an either/or situation where one does not exist.
To clarify, I’m not saying that dirty politics do or do not take place in Bollywood. I’m not stating an opinion on whether or not Sushant Singh Rajput lost work because of that, or if he was excluded because he was an outsider. That’s not my point.
My point is, why are we looking so hard for a reason? Why are people calling this a murder? Even if Sushant lost some work or didn’t have any, so have many, many actors, at one time or another in their careers. He was not guaranteed work, no one is in the film industry. Plus, it’s not as though he wasn’t getting any, he did Chichhore, Drive and then Dil Bechara, so I doubt he was sitting home without work. He had a relatively average/normal amount of work out since starting out in films. So I guess that’s the point where it confused me when he died and all of a sudden this was foul play, or something fishy was going on, or he was blacklisted, or he was a victim of some nepotism scheme. And then people are dredging up clips from Koffee with Karan and using that as proof that Karan disliked Sushant and conspired to end his career, or blaming Alia because she didn’t know who he was when he started in films. Like why is that the place people went to?
A successful, young, intelligent man, committed suicide. That doesn’t mean you need to look for someone to blame. That doesn’t mean some wrongdoing had to occur. He had an illness, and that illness took his life. If we make care for such illnesses more accessible, we can save countless other lives. That’s my point.
CID
Anupamaa
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
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