New Delhi: Hours before he hanged himself at his Bandra home, Bollywood star Sushant Singh Rajput called his former girlfriend Rhea Chakravarty, his sister and model Mahesh Shetty.
It was not immediately known what Rajput told the troika.
And then Rajput hanged himself, black marks on his neck looking like dark snakes.
He committed suicide close to a room in his spacious apartment where he had placed a gigantic telescope and created hi-fi simulators so that he could fly in the sky like an astronaut, and see the galaxy.
Astrophysics was high on his interest, he would often call his friends to sit on the simulator seat and watch the stars from close. “I once told him I have weak eyesight, how can I watch the stars. He laughed and encouraged me to sit on the seat,” Bharati Dubey, a friend of the actor, said in a telephonic interview.
The actor was in love with the stars and watched them for hours together.
Rajput, a very private person, was upset because of his reported split with Rhea Chakravarty. But he rarely talked about it to anyone.
He would also remain silent about offers which once looked very promising at initial stages but eventually did not make it to the floor. He rarely talked about his films.
Instead, he encouraged his team to identify some poor children who could be taken to NASA for a week and experience the adventures of the galaxy. The list apparently was finalised and Rajput was all set to take the kids to the United States.
But he was genuinely depressed about his career—the actor caught in the crossfire of big production houses.
Rajput had a fallout with Yash Raj films (Aditya Chopra) as well as Karan Johar. He was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s first choice for the movie Ram Leela. Bhansali had approached YRF to allow Sushant to work in the movie because Rajput was under a contract with YRF. But Aditya Chopra refused to release Rajput. What surprised many was when Ranveer—also under the YRF contract—was allowed to act in Ram Leela.
Again, a similar dustup happened in Befikre, where Rajput was supposed to act but the role eventually went to Ranveer. Rajput was told he will act in Paani, a movie by Shekhar Kapur to be made under YRF banner. But after two years, Aditya Chopra backed out of Paani. Kapur had approached Coca Cola for funds to make Paani, but it did not happen. This, in turn, led to a big showdown between Rajput and Aditya Chopra. Karan Johar reportedly got involved in the fight and took the side of Chopra.
Rajput found himself lonely, he was rarely called to the big buck Bollywood parties. There were rumours Rajput rejected offers made by producers linked to the underworld.
Very few noticed Rajput had Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting “Starry Night” as the DP for his Twitter account. Van Gogh had painted Starry Night at the height of his depression.
Johar wrote on Instagram on hearing Rajput’s death: “I blame myself for never being in touch with you for the past. I have felt at times like you may have needed people to share your life with. But somehow I never followed up on that feeling. I will never make that mistake again.”
Johar must certainly be wishing that he should have responded early.