What fault in a falling star
The immediate impact
After that heart wracking incident of the renowned Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput, almost every single day willingly or unwillingly, we had been reading or watching something related to his unfortunate death in Indian media— mostly some unpleasant facts. Perhaps, the actor was never in such limelight constantly for such long duration even in his lifetime.
shock and revelation
When the news feed of his alleged suicide had surfaced first, everyone got a huge shock for sure. Amidst the challenging time of COVID-19, whether his fan or not, we felt really depressed hearing the sad news.
I myself was never his diehard fan, but when I first read the news feed, I thought– that could not be true. It took me a fair bit of moments to digest the news. For a general moviegoer like me, he was a successful actor, a star in the making or already a star in the Hindi film industry; apparently his acting career was well established. Many wannabe actor would die for to reach his place or stardom. At the age of thirty four, it looks like many successful years are yet to come to him. Moreover, what an ordinary man craves for in his life? Money, fame, comfort? Apparently he had all of these. But…..Yes, there is a big ‘but’ here.

Some thruths, some lies, or some theories
Why???
What first informed on his death to us was— he committed suicide due to depression or some mental health related issues. Subsequently, a lot was discussed on the topic of mental health. But, why a successful actor like him, who was full of life became a victim of mental illness like depression? That question arose. Was he depressed— because he was out of works; because he was deprived of important projects? All this led to the raging issue of ‘nepotism’ in Hindi film industry based on Mumbai. Fans have suddenly become utterly displeased at the functioning of the most popular film industry of India. But, was it the actual reason for his illness that led him to death? Perhaps we can’t say conclusively till date.
Theory of suspicion
Some of his fans believed— he was definitely murdered. But, why and whom? I read in some answers in ‘Quora’ where it was postulated that he might get to know some revealing truths of the film industry which may be very unsettling for some big names thereof. So, they killed him fearing that he might disclose those disturbing facts. However, these are all theories and speculations of his loving fans. Anyways, the matter is now under investigation and nothing can be said right now. Like the late actor’s millions of fan, I too can’t still believe that a young and happening actor like him is no more among us all of a sudden. I too wish to know what actually happened.
Let’s ponder over something related..
However, now we feel that the dramas unfolding in television and social media after his death are as unsettling as the news of his death. So, keeping aside the topic of his death for a while, let’s discuss some related issues of our society which we need to address. Actually these issues or traits of our society are always there, but, this kind of unfortunate incident just stirs it up to disturb the minds of sensible people. So, what are these? let’s have a look.
Toxic relationships
After the initial shock when various angles of his life came under srutiny of the public eyes, something really messy in his personal life was revealed. No, I am not saying about the drugs connections; as we now all know that his case has completely tilted to this direction only. Actually it’s about the troublesome relationships in his life.
We have been informed through various news portals that a war was going on between his alleged girlfriend and his family members even before his death. It didn’t take much efforts for us to realize that under the veil of a rosy life of a film star, he was actually torn apart by this. I don’t know whether it is the reason of his fatal depression, but, one thing is clear that it could possibly add fuel to the agony of his inner world. Although nepotism had caught more attention for his depression, we can’t rule out this angle too.

An unfortunate example
Few years back a young IAS officer from Guwahati, Assam also committed suicide citing himself as a victim of the toxic relationship between his wife and parents. Nobody talked much about this. But, every now and then everyone knows well that beauty of life for many of us is taken away by troublesome relationship.
Incompatibility, misunderstanding, too much expectations from others in the relationship, silly fight with big impact, big fight on silly issues and what not— we suffer everything and make a hell out of our lives. When we face something unpleasant we can’t handle, we tend to escape from it. Most of us adopt some kind of escaping methods of our own to live with this situation. Here, I would like to quote a kind of few funny lines I have read recently someone’s Instagram handle poped up during my scrolling:
By all means marry. If you have a good wife, you will be happy; if you get a bad one, you will become a philoshper.
Unfortunately, everyone does not become a philoshper. Some loses his or her hair from the head, some loses peace of their mind; someone even loses his or her very life! It’s indeed such a grave problem.
How to maintain a successful relationship
We enter into any kind of relationship to enhance the quality of our lives by sharing our joys, sorrows, worries; but, often that very relationship pushes our lives to a lower pit. It’s unfortunate, isn’t it? Is there any remedy? Perhaps working on our own self is the only way out. Being empathetic and adopting a non judgemental approach will always help us to sustain a good relationship. But, it’s easier said than done.
A dangerously judgemental world
After the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, apparently two questions were raised before his emotional fans. If he committed suicide, then why? What led him to such a mental state? If someone murdered him, then obviously who is behind this gruesome act? People wanted the culprit would get punished. People sought for justice. And that was fine, absolutely fine. But, amidst the brouhaha of nepotism, drug connections, toxic relationship, what disturbed me was how people easily form an opinion on anything without any substantial proofs or with very little proofs. In the name of justice, aren’t the people too quick to jump into a conclusion?

Hauchecorne syndrome
Remember Maitre Hauchecorne from the short story ‘‘ A piece of string” of famous French writer Guy de Maupassant! Sometimes we ourselves become the poor Hauchecorne or sometimes we make others. Like a bunch of flies, we like to discuss and exaggerate the faults of others. We have thousand excuses for our own shortcomings, faults, wrongdoings or whatever we may call it. However, we are ruthless in judging other’s case. We always try to examine other’s behavior, personality, lifestyle and so on from our own very biased perspectives. I won’t say– people are just like scavengers; they want to see others in a bad light only, but, unfortunately it is true that a large number of people consume a fair amount of their invaluable time of lives in discussing shortcomings of others, and looking at unpleasant things. Perhaps we get some kind of sadistic pleasure by doing so.
social media trial
In this day and age of social media and viral news, this is getting worse day by day. Today, anyone can be a superstar as well as the most hated person overnight. If someone is convicted of something, before the court of the country declares him as guilty, already his or her trial would be over in social media. Every kind of judgement would pour in from all kinds of people.
Take the example of Sushant Singh Rajput again. After his death, few persons of the Hindi film industry had to face the public wrath in social media very dearly. Some media houses perhaps added fuel to that. It went to such an extent that people almost started a campaign to dislike the trailer of a movie in YouTube made by those people ! I won’t say those men from the film industry are innocent; but, I wonder how the hatred inside our mind can be ignited so easily; how it can take a form of a tsunami to wrack havoc in someone’s reputation, dignity and life. By citing this example, I just want to say that the collective impacts of our judgmental nature can lead the society to a very dangerous situation. It’s like an extremely strong current of negativity.
Love for a lifestyle detached from life
Often we discuss– how cosy, and luxurious life a rich man, a billionaire can live. Add a perfect physical appearance to that life, he or she would become one of the most enviable, talked after person of the planet instantly. We think the successful film stars are living such a life of comfort and limelight where there is only enjoyment, merriment, and absolute freedom. Secretly sometimes we desire such a life for ourselves too. If an offer is coming their way to experience such a lifestyle, very few people would let that chance to pass.
But, our idea of such a perfect life usually gets shattered when we see this kind of incident like Sushant Singh Rajput. Under the glittery veil of glamour and false perfection, the hollowness of that lifestyle gets exposed time and again. Despite having all the comfort of the materialistic life that someone can dream about, why does a person need some escaping methods in the form of drugs, suicide? We need to introspect and find the answer.
By Saralananda Prakash