Kangana Ranaut says Ankita Lokhande told her Sushant Singh Rajput suffered ‘so much humiliation’ and ‘could not take it’
Kangana Ranaut said that Sushant Singh Rajput’s ex-girlfriend Ankita Lokhande told her about the ‘humiliation’ he was subjected to.
After Sushant Singh Rajput’s death by suicide last month, Kangana Ranaut has been up in arms against the ‘movie mafia’. In a new interview, she claims that his ex-girlfriend Ankita Lokhande told her that he was subjected to ‘so much humiliation’ in Bollywood, including negative press and professional isolation.
In an interview with The Times of India, Kangana said that she called her ‘dear friend’ and Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi co-star Ankita after Sushant’s death to get a better understanding of what he was like. “When I spoke to Ankita, she said right from the beginning, there was so much humiliation that he could not take it. This is how she summed it up,” Kangana said.
Sushant made it in Bollywood from the television world, after ‘auditions after auditions, rejections after rejections’, Ankita told Kangana. He remained ‘so grounded’ even after becoming one of the most sought-after stars in a short span of time. However, he was very sensitive to how he was perceived by others.
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Kangana added, “But one thing that she (Ankita) also said about him was that he was not thick-skinned. He would sit on Twitter when he was new and would fight with fans, asking ‘why did you think that about me? Why did you say that about me? I am not this person that you are saying.’ Ankita told me that she used to tell him ki abhi ye toh hoga na. Everybody will have their perception of you, why are you so bothered about it? He just could not take that, he could not take what people thought about him. She said, over a period, the bad PR, the ganging up, the public humiliation, he just could not take it. He has had enough – that’s what she said.”
Kangana said Ankita told her that Sushant ‘was a lot like her - intellectual, kept away from gossip and passionate about his work’. However, he sought validation and acceptance from Bollywood. “People like us, when we come from outside, we are enamoured by them. And that’s what even Ankita told me about Sushant. He wanted to be accepted. She said, ‘Kangana, Sushant was exactly like you… he was very intellectual, he would not gossip about anyone, and was very invested in what he did. He had that small-town personality.’ But she said that ‘the only difference was that he wanted to be accepted. You somehow have gotten over that urge.’”
Kangana said that when she first entered Bollywood, she, too, wanted to fit in. “I went through that phase where I straightened my hair, I stuffed my lips with botox, I started to do films like Rascals, I wore a bikini – I wanted to be desperately accepted. I went through that. I wanted to be on the cover pages of magazines. I wanted to win awards. But it is not going to help. I was still B-grade and they did not accept me,” she said.
Sushant died by suicide on June 14. There have been several allegations that professional rivalry may have driven him to his death.
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