Sushant Singh Rajput: The Bollywood outsider who reached for the moon

One of the most talented actors of his generation, Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his Bandra apartment on Sunday at the age of 34. He is survived by his father and four elder sisters.

Last year, the actor had shared his bucket list of 50 dreams with his fans on Twitter, where among other things, he talked about visiting faraway places, painting aurora lights, writing a book and getting a selfie with his favourite Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr. Sadly, most of these dreams will remain unfulfilled with his untimely death.

Sushant Singh Rajput was a quintessential Bollywood outsider who impressed everyone with his debut film Kai Po Che! in 2013.

With critically acclaimed roles in PK, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Kedarnath, Sonchiriya and Chhichhore, he proved that his success was not a fluke.

Chhichhore ironically saw him playing a father who helps his son with messages of hope and affirmation after the youngster attempts suicide. The film also helped Rajput relive his engineering days, a course that he left to pursue stardom, first as a dancer and then as an actor.

He enrolled in celebrated choreographer Shiamak Davar’s dance classes, later joining acting guru Barry John’s classes. As a struggling actor, he juggled between theatre and dance. He appeared in “Dhoom again” with Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the 2006 film Dhoom 2.

But it was the small screen that gave him his breakout role as the mild-mannered Manav in Ekta Kapoor’s soap opera Pavitra Rishta in 2009. He previously starred in a supporting role in Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil, also backed by Kapoor.

In 2011, he quit Pavitra Rishta, in which he starred opposite then-girlfriend Ankita Lokhande, to pursue a filmmaking course abroad.

Two years later, he made his Bollywood debut in Kai Po Che!, the screen adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s Three Mistakes of My Life, along with Rajkummar Rao and Amit Sadh.

Rajput was one of those rare actors from the current generation who worked with prominent directors – Rajkumar Hirani (PK), Maneesh Sharma (Shuddh Desi Romance), Abhishek Kapoor (Kai Po Che!, Kedarnath), Abhishek Chaubey (Sonchiriya), Dibakar Banerjee (Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!) and Nitesh Tiwari (Chhichhore).

He hit a rough patch in 2015 when the ambitious Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, in which he starred as the titular character, did not do well at the box office. He saw a resurgence as Dhoni the next year.

On bouncing back after a failure, Rajput told PTI in a 2017 interview that he wanted “to fail for the right reasons”.

“I really want us to be exposed to all the wonderful cinema. It is not that we don’t know right now. It is because we are very fearful. I am just trying to break through that shackle and till now I have survived,” he said at the time.

Already an ardent fan of the wicketkeeper-batsman, Rajput as Dhoni fit like a glove when he convincingly played the part of the notoriously private former Indian cricket captain in MS Dhoni: The Untold Story. It was a peek into the personal life of the cricketer and his struggling days. The preparation for the film also helped the actor bond with Dhoni.

In 2018, he purchased a piece of lunar land on the far side of the Moon, in a region called the Mare Muscoviense, or the “Sea of Muscovy” from the International Lunar Lands Registry. The property had no legal value, but that did not stop the actor from indulging his inner nerd.

The same year he starred in Kedarnath as Mansoor Khan, a humble porter who ferries pilgrims to the historic Kedarnath Temple in the Uttarakhand mountains. The film, which was the debut of actor Sara Ali Khan, received mixed reviews.

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In 2019, he starred in as dacoit Lakhna Chaubey’s Chambal-set drama Sonchiriya. A critically acclaimed film with a star-studded cast including the likes of Manoj Bajpayee, Bhumi Pednekar, Ashutosh Rana, Sonchiriya failed to strike a chord.

Drive went straight to Netflix and was slammed by viewers and critics alike.

His film Dil Bechara, the Hindi adaptation of The Fault In Our Stars, is yet to release.