It sinks my heart to use the tense ‘was’ when it comes to 34-year-old Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who died by suicide on June 14. For me, he was someone who defined and lived the five metaskills of ‘feeling, seeing, dreaming, making, learning’ and epitomized the art of being creative, resilient and being self-aware.
He was singularly engaging on his social media, not just about his movies but also his beliefs. He had once shared his tweet ‘My 50 dreams and counting..!’ and kept his followers updated as he fulfilled each one of them. Helping kids learn about space, sending 100 kids for workshops in ISRO/NASA, helping to train women in self-defense, preparing students for Indian Defence Force… the list went on, #livingmydream & #lovingmydream.
Being a Multicultural Mental Health Foundation Australia Ambassador and with the month of June-July highlighting International Men’s Health & National Mental Health Month, I can only share Sushant’s tweet message of ‘To understand and to be understood is all we ever asked for…’.
My description for him doesn’t make anyone realize that I am actually talking about an impressively talented actor in Indian television and cinema. He called himself ‘Photon in a double slit’ on his social media handle. It’s as if he had some intellectual dark energy that would flourish through his complex life of glamour, silver screen, and unending dreams.
We will always remember him for his legendary performance in the movie MS Dhoni, Chhichhore, and Pavitra Rishta.
Why do I share this now? Is it because #sushantsinghrajput is trending or to recall and highlight my memory of seeing him live at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in 2018.
‘Sushant’ in Sanskrit means ‘peaceful’. Despite his hardships in Bollywood, he was indeed Sushant.
SSR, you shall be remembered. Always.
Dheepa Awtani is a Young Female Achiever of the Year at The Indian Sun Community Awards, winning IFFM film maker, professional, entrepreneur, Woman forum lead of IAEF, Executive Director of Young Fighters Foundation Fund, multicultural Ambassador for AFL, MHFA and ex-cricket Australia and Social Media connoisseur & Digital Media producer of BYSQ Itz Showtime | @bysqitzshowtime | @dheepa_awtani | media@bysq.com.au
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