Murder by Nepotism

Like all others, I too got stunned and saddened by the sudden end of the life of Sushant Singh Rajput. No, we were not related, not friends not even acquaintances. A fan? Maybe to a certain extent. He used to be there on the screen and I, as an avid movie-goer in the seat in a cosy cinema auditorium. What I admired about him and other boys like him, say, Ayushman Khurana, Rajkumar Rao, Nawazuddin Siddiqui that they reached the top absolutely on their own, without any godfather in the highly nepotistic Hindi film industry. Bollywood?

No doubt Sushant was an A grader starting on a humble note as an actor on the small screen where they churn out daily soap operas with clockwork precision. Without any heart in it, what so ever. Quitting Engineering course that he secured with all India rank, requires a lot of guts if you come from a middle class background. And that too to pursue a dream, in a fickle business like show business.

To climb up the ladder of success opposite the golden spoon boys of the well-known is a tough task. They have to keep on proving themselves again and again and again as, if there is one flop and you are out, which is/was never the case with the chosen ones. And that’s the nidus for insecurity and maybe depression.

Abhishek Bachchan kept on signing movies, even after giving flops after flops. In his entire carrier, Saif Ali Khan, the father of ‘Taimur’ gave only one worthwhile performance in ‘Omkara’ , otherwise, it’s all blank but he walked away with Padmashree. The face of Sunny Deol would have beaten flat, that of a Parkinsonism patient in an advanced stage, it used to be that wooden, deadpan! But he survived for years with solo hits in some obscure cinema hall in Bhatinda! Ranbeer Kapur walks away with an award for his hackneyed performance in a third rate biopic on the third rate, proven criminal, a goon with connections [From the industry again], and against whom? Ayushman Khurana in ‘Andhadhun’? Eh! Sanjay Dutt is giving flops after flops after his release from the jail but there is no dearth of producers waiting in a queue to sign him on the dotted line. In his case, there is not a single positive point for him to be there, even remotely, except, he is the son of Nargis and mostly of Sunil Dutt.

Except for Alia Bhatt, even for the actresses the scene is not far from different. Tapasi Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar are far better than Ananya Pandey, who? but … Same was the case with Mala Sinha, Zarina Wahab and Urmila Matondkar, they never got their dues!

And vice a versa? Many like Avinash Wadhwan, Chandrachur Singh , oh, so many like them, with talent, even good faces, were discarded like hot potatoes with few flops.

Maybe the same insecurity was burning Sushant from inside. To keep on giving hits after hits, just to be afloat. And in the Bollywood, [anywhere else for that matter], ‘Nothing succeeds like success’. Though not in the league of Ayushman Khurana or Rajkumar Rao but with a chocolate face and boyish charm and dollops of talent, he was in the class of Shah Rukh Khan, [Before he made Rajesh Khanna of himself], given the right script he would have shown definitely.  

I am not into obituaries but with a very heavy heart I offer my condolences to his departed soul, which could be a murder by nepotism.