‘We Look For Success In The Wrong Places'

Sushant Singh Rajput’s death by suicide at 34 made his grieving, enraged fans reopen the nepotistic debate in Bollywood. So, when star kids in their social media obits called Rajput a brilliant star, apologised that they could have done more, and highlighted normalising mental health, they got lambasted.

- Ornella D’souza

They were accused of cashing on his death and being the actual perpetrators of perpetuating the outsider, and in Sushant’s case outcasting him, not taking his calls, stalling his films, basically isolating him. It got ugly.

Then someone called Karan Johar a hijra. This didn’t sit well with actor Rajat Barmecha of Udaan (2010), web series Girl in the City (GITC) and Hey Prabhu. Barmecha, not a product of nepotism, had already posted one video questioning film personalities (not with the same angst as Kangana Ranaut), “Where are they when the person is alive and actually needs to hear something good?” But after the hijra comment, he made a second video to explain how abusing Johar makes us become exactly like those who made Sushant feel alone and cornered. And making ‘hijra’ sound derogatory in 2020 is a setback for all the progress we’ve made with LGBTQ rights. “People DM’ed me with abusive language, said that now KJO will take you in his film… I didn’t reply as these things don’t affect me.”