Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta has responded to allegations that late actor Sushant Singh Rajput was ‘shunned’ in Bollywood for being an outsider. The director said that his own experience as an outsider has been pleasant and he has hardly been ‘ganged up’ against.
In an interview with The Times of India, Sanjay said that the insider-outsider debate has been made into ‘too much of an issue’. “They welcomed me. I am also an outsider, I don’t have a family in the business. They have just made too much of an issue of this insider-outsider thing which is complete nonsense. It has been welcoming and there have hardly been any instances where everyone has ganged up and said let’s teach this guy a lesson or make him sit at home. Nobody does that,” he said.
Sanjay said that Sushant did not have a dearth of film offers and was turning down projects out of ‘choice’. “Right up to his death, may God bless his soul, he was getting film offers but he was not doing it and that was his choice. It was not that he was shunned. He was a star. Sushant Singh Rajput was not someone who was climbing the ladder, he could sell films on his name. He was a bankable star but what has happened is truly disgusting. Leave the boy and his family alone,” he said.
According to Sanjay, Sushant’s death was turned into a ‘spectacle on national television’ and every day, ‘someone new’ came out and had something to say. “Who are these people and how do they matter? Where were they when Sushant was there and now they are coming out and speaking. Everyone’s looking at it from their point of view, their own perspective and how it benefits their perspective. I don’t think it’s out of any love for Sushant that they are coming forward and giving their views. Everyone’s washing their hands in it,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}According to Sanjay, Sushant’s death was turned into a ‘spectacle on national television’ and every day, ‘someone new’ came out and had something to say. “Who are these people and how do they matter? Where were they when Sushant was there and now they are coming out and speaking. Everyone’s looking at it from their point of view, their own perspective and how it benefits their perspective. I don’t think it’s out of any love for Sushant that they are coming forward and giving their views. Everyone’s washing their hands in it,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Sushant died by suicide on June 14 and it was said that professional rivalry may have had a role to play. It was alleged that he was a victim of nepotism and lost out on opportunities because he was an outsider. Actor Kangana Ranaut alleged that the ‘movie mafia’ made attempts to sabotage his career and declare him a ‘flop star’.
However, Vikas Singh, the lawyer of Sushant’s family, dismissed this theory. “If tomorrow, the Mumbai Police feel that any outsider or any person who comes from a small town to this industry needs protection and they feel like it is a cognisable offence, then they can go ahead and do that angle. In my legal mind, it really does not require the police to go into this matter. Maybe an actors’ association or producers’ association can take up this matter but I don’t think that this case has anything to do with what Kangana has suggested or anybody else is talking about,” he had earlier said.
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