Sushant Singh Rajput shot to fame with his chocolate boy looks and applause worthy performances. Less than a decade in Bollywood and 11 films old, the actor ended his life at his Bandra residence, bidding adieu to the world at the age of 34.
As a reaction to this heartbreaking incident, Bollywood actress Koena Mitra slams Bollywood for treating Sushant as an outsider.
In an interview Koena said “Sushant was such a bright guy, good looking actor and he succeeded with good films. Despite that I read a statement that he was treated like an outsider, not invited at parties and weddings. A lot of people have experienced this, he is not the first one. The film industry will not treat you like family till the time your family doesn’t belong to the industry or if you are not a camp follower. It’s pretty sad. He’s not the first one and there are many such Sushants in our industry. I would never call him a coward, no one knows what he was going through. No one has the right to call him weak, quitter and that he couldn’t handle it. Maybe he was very angry and knew that it was of no help of showing his anger.”
Pointing out how Bollywood has lost its essence of true cinema and slamming nepotism the actress added, “Bollywood is no more about celebrating art. The culture, fashion and lifestyle is more popular. Bollywood lifestyle is more popular than substantial films and then comes groupism and friendship where friends are expected to work for free. There are a lot of bread snatchers in our industry, so much that they will snatch the last piece of bread from your mouth and leave you hungry just to do favours to their camp. Nepotism, bias and gundagiri is there in our industry and has become a habit now.”
Koena mentions how newcomers were often bullied “Those writing essays mourning his death used to mock him because he was a TV star. There is a discrimination we have in our industry. If you are from the fashion industry, models can’t do anything, if you are from the TV industry, they say you don’t have a standard, are not of the same category. Imagine the kind of rejection, discrimination John Abraham, Sushmita, Priyanka had to face. I am happy to see them do so well now. A couple of years back a lot of people were behind Priyanka Chopra, trying to finish her. But she was smart enough, she moved out of this mess and has started doing so well.”
Slamming filmmaker Karan Johar, Koena added, “Karan Johar does not have the license of this industry. It is shown as if he presents or rejects something then it is the ultimate thing. But no, the industry is an ocean and we are tiny little drops in it. He is also a drop in it. No one can decide who works and who should be rejected.”
Calling out the hypocrisy in Bollywood she further added, “After people are gone they will come out and do dramas, crocodile tears, write essays, beautiful stories. But till the time people are alive, their bread will be snatched. They will write essays right now but will do the same thing tomorrow, there are many bread snatchers. And the biggest problem is they are scared of the truth, but they should be exposed. When Shiney Ahuja came out, everyone banned him and said that no work should be given to him. But certain superstars have also been to jail, how can they ban others? After Jiah Khan’s death, there were charges on Sooraj, but superstars promoted and made sure that he was running his house and working. Then why did no one support Shiney? Lot of people begged that he should be given work, but he was not heeded because he is an outsider. He didn’t belong to any camp. That’s the problem with our industry, lot of hypocrisy, lot of discrimination and too much arrogance. They are destroying families. Lot of people choose big camps thinking it is advantageous, which is true, but please note that there are others carving their path and struggling.”
Giving her own example of being bullied, Koena adds, “I was performing with Vivek Oberoi at a show, after which I was invited by a superstar where I was told that people will corner me now because Vivek is not liked by a certain camp. That’s fine, but I don’t have problems with him. And I’m a professional artist. I run my house. If somebody is hiring me for a job I’m good at it, that’s why they’re hiring me. I don’t have the license or power to judge my co-actors. I was told again, and again, how it will destroy me because I was seen with him. I don’t understand why the industry has to choose sides if two people have problems. If you choose a master then everything is okay otherwise you are bad.”
Wanting an end to bullying in Bollywood, Koena shared, “The popular idiom in our industry is ‘don’t trouble your mother’, but people should know that you are not troubling your mother but maybe troubling many other mothers. You are playing with their kids, their lives, their state of mind by bullying them. Body shaming, age shaming, face shaming, it has become a culture. This should be stopped.
Further calling out the audience, Koena added, “You have to blame our audience also to an extent. People are mindlessly empowering certain people, following certain cultures. There is mockery, judgement, gundagiri, violence, insult and people are following it. Without using your brain you are creating monsters and their behaviour will take away humans. Our industry has many such camps who are very good at bread snatching. This actor is good, remove him and cast another one. If someone is earning their bread, you are not supposed to snatch their bread. They should be allowed to grow.”