The tragic death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput has led to a number of debates, with speculation over why the actor would take his own life, and conversations on “camps” in Bollywood dominating headlines for the last few days.
The supposedly heartfelt social media posts shared a day after the actor’s death, have now also come under fire by a few big names in the industry, who termed the tributes “fake” and a display of “hypocrisy”.
Kirti Sanon, who was one of the few actors who didn’t post their condolences on social media, was also one of the first to speak out. A day after the actor’s funeral, she took to Instagram to say that Sushant Singh’s death had broken her completely, before lashing out at those who asked why she hadn’t posted about Sunday’s events earlier.
“Social media is the FAKEST, most toxic place.. and if you haven’t posted RIP or said something publicly, you are considered not to be grieving, when in reality, those are the people grieving for REAL. It seems Social Media is the new ‘Real’ world.. and the Real world has become ‘Fake’,” she wrote.
The actor, who was Sushant Singh’s co-star in Raabta, also questioned the conduct of the media at the funeral, urging them to maintain some “dignity and distance”, and reminding them that celebrities were also human beings with feelings.
Saif Ali Khan also had a few harsh words for the “sudden outpouring of love” for Sushant Singh on the day of his death, suggesting that a day of silence would have been more appropriate than the “hypocrisy” of pretending to care.
“There are so many people who’ve made comments so quickly. And it just seems to me that people are somewhere gaining some mileage from this poor fellow’s tragedy,” he said in an interview with the Times of India. “So many people are talking rubbish in this nonstop kind of barrage on social media and it’s just embarrassing, really, I think.”
Saif went on to call out those who “obviously didn’t care about” Sushant Singh as well as those who “famously don’t care about anybody else”. He said that this performative grief was an “insult” to the Chhichhore star.
“We live in an age where people write 10 lines for you on Twitter and will walk past you on the street — won’t even touch you or shake your hand,” he said. “To take any stand at the moment, apart from just sorrow… is somewhere manipulating the situation, I feel.”
Abhishek Kapoor, who directed Sushant Singh’s debut film Kai Po Che!, raised similar concerns in an interview with journalist Shoma Chaudhary. Terming Sushant’s death a result of a “systematic dismantling of a fragile mind” the filmmaker spoke in detail about how actors were treated like “commodities”.
“You want to make crores off him, at least bespoke a package where his mind is maintained spiritually so he can give you better things,” he said, referring to how the industry had failed to understand artists like Sushant Singh.
“Sushant was brilliant, he was an engineer, he was into astrophysics and quantum physics. But because we couldn’t box him into stereotypes we called him ‘off’… There’s this thing that if you’re not like us then you can’t be with us,” he added.
A number of celebrities, including Karan Johar and Alia Bhatt have been accused in the last few days of both mocking and ignoring Sushant Singh before his death. With several big names now calling out “fake” condolences, it’s unlikely that the debate will end soon.
This article was first published in Arre
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