Statements of 37 people recorded so far, Mahesh Bhatt to record his statement in a day or two. Summons sent to Kangana Ranaut to record her statement. Karan Johar's manager has been called, if needed,Johar will also be called:Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Sushant Singh Rajput case
Kangana Ranaut's interview to Republic TV and Shekhar Kapur's tweet were triggers!
In her sensational interview to Republic TV's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, Kangana Ranaut had called the probe as it was then a 'sham' as 4 key persons who should have been interrogated hadn't yet been called. Since then, Aditya Chopra & Rajeev Masand have had their statements recorded, while Mahesh Bhatt will now be called, and possibly also Karan Johar.
Since Sushant Singh Rajput's death last month, several politicians, celebrities and common people have been voicing a demand for CBI enquiry into the death of 34-year-old actor -- which was given out as suicide.
He was found dead at his suburban Bandra apartment on June 14.
The police claim of suicide too has been questioned.
Earlier, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Yash Raj Films chairman Aditya Chopra have also been quizzed by Mumbai cops.
Bhansali, in his statement given to Mumbai Police earlier this month, had said that he had approached Sushant for four films including Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela (2013), Bajirao Mastani (2015) and Padmaavat (2018). However, Bhansali recalled being told by YRF that Rajput's dates were unavailable. The three films turned out to be blockbusters at the box office and won several popular awards.
The filmmaker had reportedly offered a fourth film to Rajput but it did not work out too !!
Chopra meanwhile had said that they never stopped the late actor from working with filmmakers outside the production house.
Police have also recorded statements of three psychiatrists and a psychotherapist as part of their probe. Rajput was undergoing treatment for depression since November 2019, they said.
Since Rajput's death last month, several politicians, celebrities and common people have been voicing a demand for CBI enquiry into the 34-year-old actor's death. He was found dead at his suburban Bandra apartment on June 14.
Asked about Karan Johar, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh replied, "Karan Johar's manager has been summoned, and if needed we'll summon Karan Johar as well." He added, "Is there a coterie that prevents outsiders from coming to Bollywood? This we'll probe from a business angle."
Kangana Ranaut's interview to Arnab Goswami @RepublicTV has opened a Pandora's box as they put it !!
'The Mahesh Bhatt' family has reasons to be angry and hence number of missives have surfaced on Twitter, Istagram .
Few Samples:
During the interview, Ranaut said that if Mahesh Bhatt was “counselling” Sushant that might have further caused distress to his mental health. She added, “What gives these people the license to say things like ‘Your end is near’ for artists? If they knew Sushant wasn’t feeling well, why didn’t they call his father and tell that your son is not well?” She urged police to question the Bhatts in connection to the suicide of Shushant Singh Rajput. She added, “What was Mahesh Bhatt doing between Rhea and him? Everyone wants to know. Why is Mumbai Police not calling Mahesh Bhatt for questioning?”
It is notable here that Bhatt’s co-called closeness with Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and his videos holding Rhea in a tight embrace have been doing rounds on social media, giving rise to speculations about Bhatt’s role in the relationship between Rhea and the deceased actor.
(says an article in OpIndia.com)
A few bitter/cryptic and double meaning messages cames up - of course directing the ire against Kangana Ranaut !!
Mahesh Bhatt himself wrote: "True words aren’t eloquent; eloquent words aren’t true. Wise men don’t need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point aren’t wise.”
Pooja Bhatt posted a tweet on 20th July in which she quoted Tehran-born writer Kamand Kojouri and said, “We reveal most about ourselves when we speak about others.”
Soni Razdan, wife of Mahesh Bhatt and mother of Alia Bhatt, posted on Instagram profile in which she said, “A lie runs until it is overtaken by the truth.”
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Time is ticking; and time to act against ‘Nepotism’ in Bollywood
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| My piece in a Port Blair newspaper |
New Delhi:
Suicide could be perhaps defined as a love affair with ambitions and success that has turned sour if not bitter. But somewhere I have also read that suicide is man’s or a person's way of telling the God, you cannot fire me, I quit!
Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide made news and also, importantly, opened a can of worms. Now, who all are looking for cover?
But what piece I am trying to offer this time? Nope, it’s not on suicides. Nor on how India can turnout into a hub of mental agony and loneliness due to coronavirus-infected troubles.
Typically, have not we read and learned to understand a vital fact that everyone hates the evil being !
The negative characters! Suicide is certainly one such chapter.
In Bollywood, negative protagonists on the screen have sometimes been a club of gems. It used to be said in Mumbai (or previously Bambai) that Pran – who epitomised a near untouchable villain – was one of finest persons in the Bollywood industry. Of course, I did not know Pran intimately even from a professional point of view. Though Pran sahab died 12 July, 2013; by the time I landed in Mumbai to work for a premier news agency, the iconic star had almost vanished into oblivion.
But when ‘negativity thrives’ – look at the manner the 'sickular and pro-China lobby' sang the song over LAC debacle and also Covid19 gloom – I thought, it could be in fitness of things to remember just a few loveable Bollywood baddies - people whom we all could never ignore; even if we despise them for their on screen roles.
Long before the appreciation by spin-masters started about Shah Rukh Khan for his success in ‘Baazigar’, ‘Darr’ and ‘Anjaam’ (wherein the protagonist is even admired for kicking Madhuri Dixit); the negative roles were not quite taboo for several stars in the past too.
Likes of Jeevan and Ajit would be always cherished and so would be roles by Premnath.
People, in fact, have fond memories of Amjad Khan’s ‘Kitney aadmi they’ and ‘Bahut yaarana lagta hae’ one-liners.
Amitabh Bachchan actually thrived with near-negative characters portrayed by him in ‘Deewar’ and ‘Trishul’. But this was also the time – the ugly pattern started in the film world. And thus I say, despite my immense admiration for ‘Vijay’ especially in ‘Deewar’– the films of that era tried to promote one set of artistes and characters those otherwise deserved to be painted black.
In ‘Deewar’ (1975) there was a classic case of efforts to glorify the role of dockyard don Haji Mastan. Mastan operated a powerful smuggling syndicate along the Gujarat coast and through Mumbai and later 'diversified' into film financing and real estate business. This marked the entry of rotten and ill-gotten money intothe film world.In fact Amitabh's first major success 'Zanjeer' had Pran portraying Karim Lala, leader of the Pathan gang and he was presented as an evil-turned-good soul protagonist.
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| A relevant campaign in Mizoram |
A deliberate attempt was also made that other than a select group of ‘writers’, none could give the type of stories and songs those came up.
It was the beginning of the lobby culture. Some of them rightly made use of their religion and also cultivated political class too! They also easily grew friendlier to the 'dynasty political family' in Delhi, a few political parties and also the Left Liberals.
But look at the turn of events – no one would perhaps remember Amjad Khan’s son today – who also made an attempt to make a niche for himself in the industry but failed.
For that matter ‘Sholay’ director Ramesh Sippy too could not produce or direct a film of that calibre and entertainment value. But look at some of those ‘dharma-putras’ and people much younger and with the right surname with ‘K’ in it.
If today, there is a lot of talk about nepotism and many first generation ‘outsiders’ are screaming out against discriminations – we can easily say there is no smoke without fire.
Can we then make a list of stars of the 1980s and 1990s era and also from later stages - who could have achieved much more given their talent and versatility, but who all fell prey to a dirty word called ‘politics’?
Manoj Bajpai was one whose role as ‘Bhikhu Matre’ in ‘Satya’ was near path breaking. A number of other stars also came up and could not carry on for long. Next in mind comes Jugal Hansraj. He put on a sensational performance in 'Papa Kaheten haen' and the song 'Ghar se nikalte hi'. As a child artist he showed his potential in 'Masoom' directed by Shekhar Kapur, who incidentally hit headlines after Sushant Singh Rajput's tragic end too.
Jugal's career was also short-lived. Starring opposite Monisha Koirala, Vivek Mushran in ‘Saudagar’ also had looked very promising, but he too could not continue for long.
So much has been the manipulation of spin-masters that in 2000 and at later stages, we had television channels also focusing day in and day out only on one variety of film stars, their songs and their films. The obvious influence of the nepotism culture could not be simply ignored!
At a filmi function in Mumbai, Ashutosh Rana, who played the role of Shabnam Mausi in the film based on a transgender social worker had raised the bogey of talent and dynastic nepotism in Bollywood. Rana showed his potentials in several films but probably he too faced discrimination!
On the other hand, look at the glorification of a star called Sanjay Dutt and how everyone under the sun seemed to have forgotten the charges he faced. The Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav – largely at the influence of Amar Singh – in 2008 also made a political joke of the decade when Dutt was made the party general secretary ! What did a party claiming to uphold values of socialism and political principles of Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan achieved in the process remains a mystery.
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| Sushant ! |
Some people are born lucky or ‘forcefully’ given the luck and allowed to be raised as cult figures!
Remember the infamous hit and run case in Mumbai and chasing the blackbuck in Rajasthan!
There is also a biopic on Sanjay Dutt, and one is not aware of such a biopic coming on the life and works of stars and also colourful characters like Amitabh Bachchan or Rajesh Khanna. Yes, the lobby seems to work everywhere !
Now most of these ‘stars’ with all kinds of lucky surnames and etc etc are feeling the heat of people's anguish due to one reason or another. Several of their films have flopped and so to regain popularity, they often try to use the names of Hindu Gods and epics! But these are also not successful.
Opportunism is an art in politics and thus one Sena leader in his enthusiasm has dismissed the entire theory of nepotism in Bollywood altogether. Of course, he cannot be speaking against 'dynasty' for he already has a talented ‘future deputy CM’ in his party !
Talking about villains in Bollywood, one cannot forget Prem Chopra, and his one of the noted dialogues.
“Mein wo bala jo sheshey se patthar tod doon (I can even break a stone with a glass piece)”.
All negativity is not just bad! One feels sorry that Sushant Singh Rajput chose to end his life so early.
Can Sushant's death help us to get to the rot?
And yes, there is a need to rethink how so many Pakistani stars make so easily in Bollywood !
I need not hate Pakistani stars, but when it comes to manipulation and nepotism, one can get angry easily!
ends
90s was all by the khans and they made all arrangements to stop others...
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