(January 21, 1986 – June 14, 2020)
Showbiz survives on dreams, and dreamers. On men and women who come to the city with nothing but a burning desire to shine on the big screen. Not all realise their dreams. But the ones who do, inspire a thousand more. Sushant Singh Rajput was one such person, who came to Mumbai and gave more than his 100 per cent to reach the top. But after achieving the unattainable, there remained a void. That perhaps explains the emotional anguish he was reportedly going through in the last few months of his life.
Sushant was born in Patna to Krishna Kumar Singh, a government employee and Usha Singh on January 21, 1986. He had four elder sisters. One of his sisters, Mitu Singh, is a state-level cricketer. Being the youngest he was much pampered. The family reportedly moved to Delhi after his mother’s death in 2002. He studied both in Patna and in Delhi. He was a studious child and was, in fact, a national Olympiad winner in Physics. He studied engineering at the Delhi College of Engineering but didn’t complete the course. During college, he joined Shiamak Davar’s dance class and found his calling as a performer. He was considered one of the best students of Shiamak and was a background dancer in one of the Filmfare Awards. He had reminisced about the experience in a Filmfare interview, “I remember watching Hrithik Roshan rehearse. He would execute these perfect steps for 10 minutes and then turn back and ask us if he was doing alright. It was a kind of a high that he had looked at you and was asking your opinion. Another high was watching Shah Rukh Khan perform at close quarters.”
Theatre beckoned and he joined Barry John’s classes in Delhi. Doing plays gave him a high. He loved enacting different personalities in front of the audience, leading different lives. He joined Nadira Babbar’s troupe Ekjute when he came to Mumbai and loved doing theatre in the city as well. He broke into the ad-circuit and began doing commercials. Soon, he was getting TV offers. His first stint came with Balaji’s Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil. His popularity in the show, won him a lead role in Balaji’s Pavitra Rishta in 2009. The show became a gamechanger of sorts. Ankita Lokhande’s and his popularity knew no bounds. The two leads of the show were said to be in a relationship from 2010 onwards. It kept strong even when he left the show in 2011 to pursue a career in films. Their break-up was reported by the papers in 2016. This is what he said about his break-up in one of his interviews to Filmfare, “Everything you know changes one morning… two people who are close sometimes grow apart. It’s sad but there’s nothing you can do about it...” He was later linked to Kriti Sanon and was currently said to be dating Rhea Chakraborty.
He also participated in the dance reality show Zara Nachke Dikha 2 in 2010. He was extremely close to his mother, who had passed away in 2002. His team dedicated their performance to his mother in the Mother’s Day Special show. He also appeared in another dance reality show, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 4.
His film career began with Abhishek Kapoor directed Kai Po Che! (2013). The film was based on the Chetan Bhagat novel The 3 Mistakes Of My Life. It had Sushant play a cricket crazy youngster, who along with his friends, played by Amit Sadh and Rajkummar Rao, opens a sports goods shop and a cricket academy. He goes on to mentor a young Muslim cricketer. The film was set against the backdrop of the Gujarat riots and proved to be a critical and commercial success. Shuddh Desi Romance, which came the same year, had Sushant in a different avatar. He played a young commitment-phobic man caught between two lovers, played by Parineeti Chopra and Vaani Kapoor. His natural ease in front of the camera was noted by the audience. He got a chance to work with Rajkumar Hirani in his next, PK (2014), where he played a young Pakistani national in love with Indian culture. The role, though short, won him notice by the critics. Dibakar Banerjee’s wartime thriller, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015), had him play one of India’s well-loved fictional detectives. It was a period film praised for its detailing. Sushant rued the fact that the audience didn’t take to it. “Byomkesh deserved to be seen by a much bigger audience. It was way ahead of its time. But I guess the audience has been conditioned into seeing a certain kind of film.”
The biggest fillip to his film career came with the Mahendra Singh Dhoni biopic, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), directed by Neeraj Pandey. Sushant was a diehard fan of Dhoni and was delighted to get a chance to play one of the greatest cricketing captains in the world. Sushant was coached by former wicket-keeper and batsman Kiran More both in the art of keeping stumps and batting. He watched around 500 hours of footage on MS Dhoni to get the mannerisms right. He grew close to Dhoni over the making of the film. It was a commercial and critical success. Sushant was praised not only for his physical transformation but for his effortless portrayal of Dhoni.
He was reportedly going to star in Shekhar Kapur’s Paani and spent some 10 months preparing for it. Though nothing came of it, he did find a friend in Kapur and chalked off the experience as a huge learning module.
Chanda Mama Door Ke, a science-fiction film where he was supposed to play an astronaut too never got made. As did the musical Takadum, which was supposed to be directed by Homi Adajania and co-star the late Irrfan Khan.
Sushant was born in Patna to Krishna Kumar Singh, a government employee and Usha Singh on January 21, 1986. He had four elder sisters. One of his sisters, Mitu Singh, is a state-level cricketer. Being the youngest he was much pampered. The family reportedly moved to Delhi after his mother’s death in 2002. He studied both in Patna and in Delhi. He was a studious child and was, in fact, a national Olympiad winner in Physics. He studied engineering at the Delhi College of Engineering but didn’t complete the course. During college, he joined Shiamak Davar’s dance class and found his calling as a performer. He was considered one of the best students of Shiamak and was a background dancer in one of the Filmfare Awards. He had reminisced about the experience in a Filmfare interview, “I remember watching Hrithik Roshan rehearse. He would execute these perfect steps for 10 minutes and then turn back and ask us if he was doing alright. It was a kind of a high that he had looked at you and was asking your opinion. Another high was watching Shah Rukh Khan perform at close quarters.”
Theatre beckoned and he joined Barry John’s classes in Delhi. Doing plays gave him a high. He loved enacting different personalities in front of the audience, leading different lives. He joined Nadira Babbar’s troupe Ekjute when he came to Mumbai and loved doing theatre in the city as well. He broke into the ad-circuit and began doing commercials. Soon, he was getting TV offers. His first stint came with Balaji’s Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil. His popularity in the show, won him a lead role in Balaji’s Pavitra Rishta in 2009. The show became a gamechanger of sorts. Ankita Lokhande’s and his popularity knew no bounds. The two leads of the show were said to be in a relationship from 2010 onwards. It kept strong even when he left the show in 2011 to pursue a career in films. Their break-up was reported by the papers in 2016. This is what he said about his break-up in one of his interviews to Filmfare, “Everything you know changes one morning… two people who are close sometimes grow apart. It’s sad but there’s nothing you can do about it...” He was later linked to Kriti Sanon and was currently said to be dating Rhea Chakraborty.
He also participated in the dance reality show Zara Nachke Dikha 2 in 2010. He was extremely close to his mother, who had passed away in 2002. His team dedicated their performance to his mother in the Mother’s Day Special show. He also appeared in another dance reality show, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 4.
His film career began with Abhishek Kapoor directed Kai Po Che! (2013). The film was based on the Chetan Bhagat novel The 3 Mistakes Of My Life. It had Sushant play a cricket crazy youngster, who along with his friends, played by Amit Sadh and Rajkummar Rao, opens a sports goods shop and a cricket academy. He goes on to mentor a young Muslim cricketer. The film was set against the backdrop of the Gujarat riots and proved to be a critical and commercial success. Shuddh Desi Romance, which came the same year, had Sushant in a different avatar. He played a young commitment-phobic man caught between two lovers, played by Parineeti Chopra and Vaani Kapoor. His natural ease in front of the camera was noted by the audience. He got a chance to work with Rajkumar Hirani in his next, PK (2014), where he played a young Pakistani national in love with Indian culture. The role, though short, won him notice by the critics. Dibakar Banerjee’s wartime thriller, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015), had him play one of India’s well-loved fictional detectives. It was a period film praised for its detailing. Sushant rued the fact that the audience didn’t take to it. “Byomkesh deserved to be seen by a much bigger audience. It was way ahead of its time. But I guess the audience has been conditioned into seeing a certain kind of film.”
The biggest fillip to his film career came with the Mahendra Singh Dhoni biopic, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), directed by Neeraj Pandey. Sushant was a diehard fan of Dhoni and was delighted to get a chance to play one of the greatest cricketing captains in the world. Sushant was coached by former wicket-keeper and batsman Kiran More both in the art of keeping stumps and batting. He watched around 500 hours of footage on MS Dhoni to get the mannerisms right. He grew close to Dhoni over the making of the film. It was a commercial and critical success. Sushant was praised not only for his physical transformation but for his effortless portrayal of Dhoni.
He was reportedly going to star in Shekhar Kapur’s Paani and spent some 10 months preparing for it. Though nothing came of it, he did find a friend in Kapur and chalked off the experience as a huge learning module.
Chanda Mama Door Ke, a science-fiction film where he was supposed to play an astronaut too never got made. As did the musical Takadum, which was supposed to be directed by Homi Adajania and co-star the late Irrfan Khan.
What got him excited was Dinesh Vijan’s reincarnation thriller Raabta, co-starring Kriti Sanon. The big-budget film however bombed. He appeared next in Abhishek Kapoor’s Kedarnath (2018), set against the backdrop of the Uttarakhand floods. Here, he played a Muslim porter in love with a Hindu girl, played by Sara Ali Khan. The film didn’t meet with the kind of success that was projected, though Sushant’s acting did come for praise. Drive (2019), produced by Dharma Productions and Tarun Mansukhani, went straight to Netflix. Abhishek Chaubey’s Sonchiriya (2019), a period dacoit film, was a poetic journey into the hearts and minds of the baaghis - as dacoits are called in Chambal. Though it won a lot of awards and Sushant was lavishly praised for his intense portrayal, the film didn’t work at the box-office. Thankfully, his Chhichhore (2019). directed by Nitesh Tiwari and starring Shraddha Kapoor, released the same year was a commercial success. He played a concerned dad as well as a carefree collegian. The Fault In Our Stars remake titled Dil Bechara, directed by close friend Mukesh Chhabra, was supposed to release in May 2020. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, the film will have an OTT release now.
Sushant was an entrepreneur too. In 2018, he launched Innsaei Ventures, an endeavour which hoped to maximise the potential of technological innovations for a wider set of the populace. He was signed by NITI Aayog, a think-tank belonging to the government of India, to promote the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP). The actor was said to be suffering from depression for some months and was reportedly getting treated for it. He allegedly died by suicide on June 14, 2020 leaving his fans heartbroken.
Loading Next Article...
SHOW COMMENTS