Sushant Singh Rajput (21 January 1986 – 14 June 2020) was an Indian actor who is best known for his work in Hindi cinema.[2] He starred in a number of commercially successful Bollywood films such as M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), Kedarnath (2018) and Chhichhore (2019). Due to his contribution to the film industry, he received a Screen Award and was nominated for the Filmfare Awards on two occasions.

Rajput started his career after dropping out of his engineering course at the Delhi College of Engineering and entering the theatre industry in Mumbai. He moved on to feature in Hindi television serials, his debut show was the romantic drama Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil (2008), followed by the lead role in the soap opera Pavitra Rishta (2009–2011). He made his Bollywood debut in the film adaptation Kai Po Che! (2013) which became a commercial and critical success. Followed by his starring role in the romantic comedy Shuddh Desi Romance (2013) and the role of the titular detective in the action thriller Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015).

He also starred in a number of other films such as the reincarnation drama Raabta (2017), the historical drama Sonchiriya (2019) and the action thriller Drive (2019). His highest-grossing releases came with a supporting role in the satire PK (2014), and from the titular role in the sports biopic of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. For his performance in the latter, he received his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor and became the winning nomination at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Apart from acting, he was the founder of a non profit organisation and has been credited as the co-founder of a technological startup.

Rajput died by suicide at his home in Bandra, Mumbai in June 2020, aged 34.[3][4][5] His last film, Dil Bechara (2020), was released posthumously on the streaming platform Hotstar.

Early life and education

Sushant Singh Rajput was born in Patna in the state of Bihar to Krishna Kumar Singh and Usha Singh.[2][6][7] His father is a retired technical officer and worked at Bihar State Handloom Corporation in Patna.[8] He was the youngest of five siblings and had the nickname of Gulshan.[9] One of his four sisters Mitu Singh would become a state-level cricket player.[6] He attended the St. Karen's High School in Patna.[9][10] His family moved to Delhi following his mother's death in 2002 where Rajput completed his schooling for intermediate studies in Kulachi Hansraj Model School.[7]

Rajput was reportedly an avid reader who was deeply interested in astrophysics and won the National Olympiad in Physics.[11] He secured an admission in the Delhi College of Engineering (later renamed to Delhi Technological University) to pursue a Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering.[12][11] According to Rajput, he did not have any interest in engineering but his family gave him no option which left him dissatisfied. He instead wanted to become an astronaut and later an air force pilot but was also interested in Bollywood, being a fan of Shah Rukh Khan.[13]

Career

2006–2011: Early career and television

During his course at the Delhi College of Engineering, Rajput enrolled himself in Shiamak Davar's dance classes.[6] Soon afterwards, he also began attending acting classes under the theatre director Barry John.[14][15] Rajput later stated that he found the experience to be liberating and wanted to continue doing it forever.[16] He featured as a background dancer in the Dhoom Again song of Dhoom 2 and in Ashwariya Rai's performance at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games.[17] In 2006,[18] he dropped out of his engineering course during his fourth year to begin a career in arts and performance.[19] He moved to Mumbai, took up odd jobs and small roles while working in the theatre industry.[20] In Mumbai, Rajput joined Nadira Babbar's theatre group called the Ekjute in which he remained for two and a half years.[21][22]

Rajput was spotted by a casting team of Balaji Telefilms while he was working at the Prithvi Theatre.[14] He was subsequently called for an audition and cast as a second lead in the television series Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil in 2008.[23][24] He had secured the role of Preet Singh Juneja, the step brother of the lead named Harshad Chopda and entered the show in its seventh episode.[25] The character was killed early in the show, but due to popularity among viewers was brought back in the series finale as a spirit looking on as his family celebrated coming out of difficult times.[26] The performance had made an impression on the producer Ekta Kapoor who vouched for him to be cast as the lead in another series Pavitra Rishta,[23] reportedly against the wishes of the hosting channel, Zee TV.[27][28]

2011–2015: Film debut and Yash Raj Films

In 2011, Rajput was spotted by Mukesh Chhabra, the casting director of Kai Po Che!, who invited him for an audition.[38][39] He was in the process of enrolling for a course in filmmaking at Stanford University but decided to accept the offer.[14] He was subsequently cast in the role of Ishaan Bhatt, a district level cricketer who was a victim of politics in the selection fraternity and one of the three leads, along with Rajkummar Rao and Amit Sadh.[40][41] The film was directed by Abhishek Kapoor and based on the Chetan Bhagat novel called The 3 Mistakes of My Life, which dealt with the life of three friends affected by the 2001 Gujarat earthquake and the 2002 Gujarat riots was released in 2013 and became a commercial and critical success.[42] Rajput received a nomination for the Filmfare Awards in the category of best debut actor for his performance in the film.[43][44]

2015–2018: Dhoni biopic, Raabta and Kedarnath

In 2011, a biopic on the life of the Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was conceived by Dhoni's manager, Arun Pandey.[65] The project was initially faced with various difficulties including objections from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Dhoni's demand for a large royalty.[66][67] On 25 September 2014, Sushant Singh Rajput was announced as the actor who would play the role of Dhoni in the biopic which was titled M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story and directed by Neeraj Pandey.[66][68] The film was centered around the life of the cricketer beginning with his childhood in the city of Ranchi and leading up to the 2011 Cricket World Cup victory for India under his captaincy.[44] Incidentally, Rajput wasn't adept at cricket and had to train regularly in the game for 13 months as well as capture the playing style of Dhoni for his portrayal in the film,[65] he was coached by Kiran More who reportedly trained him in the regimen of a professional sportsperson rather than as an actor.[69] The film was produced by Arun Pandey with Fox Star Studios and released on 2 October 2016.[70] It became the 5th highest grossing Bollywood film of that year.[71] Rajput received critical acclaim for his performance and nominations to a number of prestigious awards,[2] including the Filmfare Awards, the International Indian Film Academy Awards and the winning nomination at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.[72][39][73] He also made a cameo appearance in the comedy film Welcome to New York,[74] which was released on 23 February 2018 and where the lead characters met Rajput but confused him for Mahendra Singh Dhoni.[75]

During the release of M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, Rajput in an interview had stated that he was signed up to do five more films; namely Raabta, Takadum, Chanda Mama Door Ke, another biopic of an athlete and a film produced by Dharma Productions featuring Jacqueline Fernandez.[76] Earlier in 2014, reports had emerged that Rajput was being signed in alongside Alia Bhatt for the starring roles in the largest budget production of the producer–directors Homi Adajania and Dinesh Vijan.[77] In an announcement in February 2015, the film titled Raabta, produced by the Vijan owned Maddock Films and co-directed by Adajania and Vijan was publicised where Rajput and Bhatt were in the lead role.[78] Bhatt however decided to opt out of the project in the same year,[79] and the role of the female lead eventually went to Kriti Sanon.[80] Rajput and Sanon later featured in a 2017 T-Series music video of the song named Paas Aao, composed by the duo Armaan and Amaal Mallik.[81] In 2017, he was featured for first time in Forbes India's Top 100 Celebrity list.[82]

The second biopic that Rajput was to feature in was tentatively titled as Murli: The Unsing Hero, where he would play the role of the disabled jawan turned paralympics gold medalist Murlikant Petkar.[83] In June 2016, Rajput along with Parineeti Chopra and Irrfan Khan were also announced as the lead of the Adajania directed film called Takadum with shooting scheduled to begin in October but the project was being put on hold due to issues related to script re-adaptation.[84] Meanwhile, the announcement of Rajput's role in Chanda Mama Door Ke had come in September 2016.[76] In the film which was to be directed by Sanjay Puran Singh, Rajput would have starred alongside Nawazuddin Siddiqui and R. Madhavan and was cast in the role of an astronaut, for which he was even sent to NASA on a training module in 2017.[85] He was also cast as the lead in the spy thriller film Romeo Akbar Walter in 2017,[86] however he quit the project in the same year reportedly causing displeasure to the producer Bunty Walia who had publicised the film with him on the cover.[87][88] Later in December 2017, it was announced that he was signed in by Abhishek Chaubey, the director of Udta Punjab for his next film titled Son Chiraiya, where he would star alongside Bhumi Pednekar.[89]