‘Not much has changed a year after Sushant’s death’

ONE year after Sushant Singh Rajput’s death tore off Bollywood’s tinsel veneer to reveal an industry riven with schisms, what has changed?

Not much, say industry insiders. The powerful Hindi film industry, peopled by the rich and famous and also those desperate for a foothold on the showbiz ladder, continues to operate on the mantras of favoritism and camps, they maintain.

The industry was and still is a fiercely guarded space, reluctant to let outsiders in and a place of cutthroat competition for new talent, said those who depend on Bollywood for a living, some speaking out and several others requesting anonymity.

On June 14 last year, Rajput, the quintessential outsider who found stardom with films was found hanging in Bandra home.

The 34-year-old’s death put the spotlight on mental health issues but also cast a cloud over the entire glamour industry with issues such as nepotism, insider-outsider and bullying opened up for intense debate.

‘I am not sure if there are too many changes that have happened. There are groups, gangs that exist. You can call it favoritism, nepotism or what you will,’ producer Pritish Nandy told.

A year after the death of the Patna-born Rajput, one of the few who successfully transitioned from television to the big screen, the nepotism debate has again gained momentum after the exit of Kartik Aaryan from Karan Johar’s Dostana 2, followed by reports that the actor was no longer part of Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming production Freddie either.

There is a need for a mental health expert on film sets, said Garima Wahal, one of the writers on Rajput’s 2017 film Raabta. ‘Hopefully someday we will see that happening and we would have to thank Sushant for it, who was a fragile intelligent mind. It shouldn’t have happened to him,’ she said.

Nandy, producer of the International Emmy-nominated show Four More Shots Please!, said the actor’s death was heavily politicized and never got the real attention it deserved.