SUSHANT WAS NOT MY SON, HE WAS NOT EVEN REMOTELY RELATED TO ME, BUT WHY AM I SO DISTURBED? -- Ali Peter John

I cannot claim to have known Sushant Singh Rajput, like many others are today. I have only seen two of his films in which I found him to be very good. I had only seen him once at the Le Regis hotel where he was promoting some product and I could sense how very popular he was with the people in the hall. I had been following his career closely and had even taken bets with people saying that he was one actor who would reach the very top only on the merit of his sheer talent, and he was almost making me win my bet...

And not even in my wildest and most dangerous dreams could imagine that his life would end so soon and under the most distressing and disgusting circumstances. Since his death, I have been in a state of mind that I cannot discribe myself.

His death is painful, but what is more painful is the reasons that are being seen as the cause of his death, the most talked about reason being the ailment called depression which experts say was caused by a powerful section of the industry, with names like Karan Johar, Salman Khan and his family, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sajid Nadiadwalla, YRK, Bhushan Kumar, Ekta Kapoor and others being thrown around by the social media, people within the industry and even the ordinary man. There is a strange storm of anger against all these men in power and as someone who has spent half a century here I feel a little scared about the names above, who I have seen grow from nowhere.

 Why are some people raking up wild stories about what could Sushant do to avoid taking such a drastic step, about what some people could have done to save Sushant and about how they knew things about Sushant which he now cannot rebut or debate about.

I have just heard about Salman and his family suing Abhinav Kashyap for defamation and there are other instances of the so called "gang" pushing Sushant to commit his ultimate "crime" trying to find ways of defending themselves or running away from the reality as some of their angry critics call their actions.

This kind of witch - hunting and playing the blame game is not going to solve a problem which has started taking the roots and spreading all over. I know I have been talking about Sushant and his tragedy for quite some time, but what can I do when this story hits me in the face every morning, afternoon, evening and night.

I am no one to pass any judgement. I know the law will take its course, but what about all the misery of the mind caused by an unexpected accident like this, especially at a time when we are battling a pandemic and there are enemies threatening to attack and stake their claims on territories that belong to us.