Sanchita
In the wake of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, Kangana Ranaut has been vocal about seeking justice for him and declared war against nepotism and the ‘Movie Mafia’.
In an interview with TOI, Kangana has opened up about the revelations made to her by Kamal Jain and Ankita Lokhande about the negative PR and professional isolation of Sushant.
Kangana stated that she and Sushant never really crossed paths but were always really close; naming Sandip Ssingh as their mutual friend. After Sushant’s death Kangana spoke to Kamal Jain who revealed that Sushant had spoken to him about being banned and had asked Kamal to announce a big film with him.
“Kamal ji told me that Sushant spoke to him days ago and said, ‘Make a big film with me. Kamal ji, you have to announce a big film with me. Everybody has banned me.’ “
Kangana had delved deeper into the matter to understand Sushant’s personality, questioning Kamal about the blind items on Sushant. Kamal had rubbished these blind articles while revealing that Sushant was ambitious but not thick-skinned.
“ Kamal ji was like, ‘What rubbish! He was a genius, no drugs, he was very health conscious’ and all of that. And one thing he said – that he was very ambitious. But he wasn’t thick-skinned. If you are ambitious and thin-skinned, how is that gonna work?”
Kangana also talked to her Manikarnika co-star Ankita Lokhande who told her that Sushant just couldn’t take the bad PR, the ganging up, and the public humiliation. Talking about how grounded Sushant was after making it in Bollywood from TV, after auditions and rejections, Ankita also said that he was not thick-skinned, and sensitive to people’s perception of him.
“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. She said that I knew this boy since he was working in serials, he became a top actor there, and then he did auditions after auditions, rejections after rejections, and then he got into the big bad world of Bollywood.
Every filmmaker wanted this boy from Bihar, they were fighting for his dates and he was so grounded. But one thing that she 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 also spoke to Kedarnath Director Abhishek Kapoor, who said that Sushant had changed from his Kai Po Che days, and also commented that – “They choked him way before he actually choked himself”.
“I spoke to Abhishek Kapoor ji and he said, ‘Kangana, woh shaheed ho gaya’. I am quoting these people because I cannot tell you the whole conversations, but everyone summed it up in their own way. Abhishek in his interviews said that he was not the same boy from Kai Po Che by the time of ‘Kedarnath’. He had changed. Woh ghut gaya tha, he said, he had changed, they had choked him way before he actually choked himself.”
Ankita had also told Kangana that Sushant was like her – intellectual, non-gossipy and invested in work. However, he wanted validation and acceptance from Bollywood, while Kangana got over that urge.
“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 had also craved to fit in and be accepted. “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.”
