Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut was a lone voice crying ‘murder’ after Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his apartment. Now she will have company.
No less than BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, the ayatollah of conspiracy theories — from Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, to Sridevi — has joined her in speculating about Rajput’s death.
Two days after Kangana Ranaut told Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami that there is a ‘suicide gang’ in Bollywood, Subramanian Swamy tweeted promising a juicy interview offering his theories on Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
Tomorrow I will tape an interview with Priya Sahgal on News X on the mysterious sudden unnatural deaths of Sushant Ranjit, Sridevi and Sunanda Pushkar. It will be first aired on News X on Wednesday.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) July 20, 2020
Indians are lapping it all up, perhap because of a wee bit of collective guilt. Not just Bollywood’s campy stars, they too, had let Sushant Singh Rajput down.
After all, beyond all the chatter about nepotism, it is also the audience who chose not to watch his films like Sonchiriya, despite the actor’s appeal and his contribution to good cinema. The film, which released on 1 March 2019, clashed with Laxman Utekar’s romantic comedy Luka Chuppi, starring Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon. And it’s very clear which movie more people went to watch.
So it helps ease the guilt to believe in murder theories. Which is why when Arizona-based paranormal peddler Steve Huff released a YouTube video of his ‘conversation’ with Rajput’s spirit, it racked up more than five million views.
Kangana Ranaut has been consistently maintaining that Sushant’s death was a planned murder, and has taken it upon herself to ‘continue’ his battle — by slinging mud left, right and centre, sparing no one.
And with the help of Swamy’s legal expertise, she is bound to ‘win’ this battle.
Also read: Nepotistic privilege should be a matter of social shame. It holds India back
But what is this battle?
Kangana has always been self-serving, and even when it comes to Rajput’s death, she has no qualms taking a swipe at everyone. She recently called actresses like Swara Bhaskar, Taapsee Pannu ‘B-grade’ actresses, and hinted at their alliances with ‘big names’ in Bollywood.
While there is no denying that Bollywood indeed thrives on nepotism and power-games, baseless accusations and mud-slinging, however, ends up destroying Ranaut’s credibility and her ongoing.
Her statements are increasingly taking on the appearance of opportunism at the cost of someone’s death. With Swamy joining in, she has just created more ‘money-making’, publicity-gaining avenues that feed off Rajput’s death.
Also read: Why Bihar politicians are scrambling to get justice for late actor Sushant Singh Rajput
Ghosts calling
Indians love anything to do with ‘bhoot-pret’ and reincarnation, which explains why a video of Sridevi’s ‘reincarnated self’ (a look-alike baby) can garner lakhs of views.
In the case of Rajput’s death, the same spectacle was seen when Huff claimed to have spoken to the spirit of the late actor, and claimed to respond to questions about his death.
These ludicrous claims aside, what is astounding is the success of the first video, which made the ‘expert’ release a second video. We might soon have a whole Netflix series if this goes on.
Also read: Sonam Kapoor to Varun Dhawan: A crash course for Bollywood’s star kids on nepotism
Support for Kangana
Love her, hate her or dismiss her, Kangana Ranaut undeniably enjoys a lot of support. Fans have been cheering on her ‘battle of truth’ and tirade against nepotism, no matter how problematic her claims and arguments.
Yes, the world is made up of all kinds of colourful people. But the ‘supernatural’ fascination around Rajput’s death, along with Ranaut’s social media hullabaloo, only points to the fact that people seem to desperately need answers, especially when confronted with the fact that we may be all complicit in Rajput’s death.
The nepotism debate continues to rage and get bigger everyday — the latest is an ugly Twitter spat between actor Ranvir Shourey and director Anurag Kashyap. But ultimately, most people have capitalised on Rajput’s death, for a myriad of agendas, rather than to actually seek a change in Bollywood’s machinery.
Views are personal.
This article clearly demonstrates the writers ability to lick the ass of ‘colorful people’ of Bollywood. There lies her existence.
Wow *slow claps* Is this what journalism has come to these days. Instead of reporting on a groundbreaking movement that serves to expose the fake and cruel Bollywood cinema world run by a few elite people who oppress actors/actresses who don’t dance to their tunes, you are derogatorily diminishing the movement as childish and worthless. Is a persons life not important? If a person who lived in the moment and cherished his life, his mistakes, his successes, suddenly dies in a supposed “suicide” without even leaving a suicide note, do we not have a right to be suspicious? Journalism in India is joke and it is a shame to call you a journalist. Next time you write an article, provide your unbiased view of a topic. If you want to shove your opinion down other people’s throat, I suggest opening up a blog
I strongly object on the word “Ayatollah” used by the editor. Ayatollah literally means a sign of Allah. Please don’t drag Islamic acronym in your foolish articles henceforth.
Both the participants and mostly all the culprits are Hindus so why not use Pandit or seer or guru instead.
Well seems like this newspaper is paid by the ISI as well. Boycott!
Some B grade article bu a B grade person. How does she know even before the investigation into Sushant’s death is concluded that there is no foul play. This is not journalism based on facts, Mr Shekhar Gupta hope you are reading this comment.
Perhaps a polygraph test of Sushant’s servants can bring out the truth quickly.
How do you know Kangana’s version is a conspiracy theory? The investigation isn’t complete. Kangana wants to testify her version.
Have you done the investigations? All forensic, interviews with suspects etc? Did you find out what abetment to suicide is? Without all these data aren’t you making up your own conspiracy theory by the same logic?
Damn, I wasted four minutes reading this know nothing article.
Go KANGNA, take them down. You have a Tiger with you named Swamy.
With all the commens out here, You better seriously think about paying back to society with ethical journalism. If you are human, everytime your pen is sold for few bucks, deep within your soul would regret and must reverberate and shake you up when you are holding your pen to write other sold stories.
Mr. Swami joining the fray must have shaken up a few. Exposure of their black deeds will mean the end of their careers.
She will not lose her credibility.We are with her and will watch her movies too.Well we know that Print works for which wing .So get your facts right before trying to malign her.Print is always anti national e newspaper.
At least now have some respect to the dead person. Just because your country is so known for whistling and hooting the hero entering breaking all glass windows it doesn’t mean there are zero people with interest for quality work in cinema.
You cannot call it a “suicide” or murder until the investigations over by saying your dumb logic written here “will ease the guilt”
This kind of cheap journalism is what pushed a talented an ambitious young man to depression. Backstabbing, mafia, mud-slinging is common in any industry. But strategically destroying someone’s career and life is not acceptable. Even after death show some respect to the soul and if you are that inhuman you don’t know how to be respectful just shut the f** up and wait without writing crap like this.
This is an article by a junior reporter under instructions to make Kangana & Mr Swami look bad.
The nexus between the movie industry, the under world, Islamists and anti-nationals will soon be exposed – this is a major worry for a number of folk in the movie industry.
you have a support your jounalism – where is the unsupport button . The world is watching . Justice may not be served my men thanks to the corruption in this country . But there is a higher power – and balance will be restored. Journalists like you will burn in hell .
People like Ms. Das are too eager to condone the nepotism and cabal like behaviour when it comes to the liberal/secular gang. Hence this lame attempt at defending Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap and others.
He just got the opportunity to say something and media attention. So much hyped story.
this post definitely follows the blink article strategy. sonchiriya was not a flop film. two films released on the same day both can be hit at the same time.
i dnt understand why Shekhar gupta allows this biased article. I have been fan of him saying journalism means unbiased reporting of events.
the author has self declared that even audiences are guilty of not supporting SSR. My od.. shame on you. For how much money do you write such articles? for an interview. Man tough job. i am so happy that i have a desk job that i dnt have to kill my soul week after week.