Anatomy of a Death

Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide was too complex for many to process. So the country indulged in a baffling alchemy: converting suicide to murder

- Tanul Thakur

THE dacoit drama Sonchiriya, starring Manoj Bajpayee and Sushant Singh Rajput, was released on March 1, 2019. An excellent film, it was a box-office disaster, grossing a meagre Rs 9.7 crore. If we consider the average ticket price in India to be Rs 119, according to a February 2023 Statista study, then around 8.1 lakh people watched the movie—less than the population of Andheri. As if Rajput didn’t even exist. Fifteen months later, on 14 June, 2020, his body was found hanging from the ceiling of his Bandra West apartment. And in the coming months—amid COVID-19 ravaging lives, the Chinese army advancing towards the border, migrant workers trudging to their homes, many collapsing on the way—the country indulged in a baffling alchemy: converting suicide to murder.

Kangana Ranaut led the charge. In a fellow actor’s demise, an actor found what she craves her entire life: a perfect story. She posted a two-minute video, rubbishing Rajput suffering from depression, and asked a question: “So was it a suicide or a planned murder?” Ranaut deployed the classic no-smoke- without-fire tactic. Bollywood is incredibly nepotistic and enough reports had surfaced over the years about Rajput’s uneasy equations with the film industry’s dynasts: Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions. In the subsequent weeks, this case began to unfold like a TV series, producing a steady stream of episodes, villains and subplots. First came Karan Johar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Shekhar Suman (with his #JusticeForSushantForum), then fans, politicians and TV channels.