Manoj Bajpayee, who worked with Sushant Singh Rajput in the dacoit drama Sonchiriya, said that he cannot come to terms with the news of his tragic demise. Sushant died by suicide at the age of 34.
In an Instagram live with Shekhar Kapur, Manoj said that Sushant touched his feet on the first day of shoot. “My mind is not leaving the image of him on the first day, coming to me and suddenly touching my feet. All the perceptions that people were floating about him, that one gesture of his just questioned everything. Not that he touched my feet…it just says so many things about his background, where he came from,” he said.
The journey of getting to know Sushant as an actor and person started from there, Manoj said. Both of them hailed from Bihar and defied all odds to make it big in the film industry.
“He started talking about our village and said that he was so glad that we were shooting in the same location where Bandit Queen was shot,” Manoj said, adding that he would observe Sushant working on his movements, dialogue delivery and craft from a distance and be fascinated.
When Manoj gave Sushant inputs to improve his performance, he would be thankful. “Rarely, you see actors feeling so grateful for the small suggestions that you give a co-actor,” he said.
Manoj said that he would always think of Sushant as the ‘happy’ and ‘jumpy’ person on the set, who would read books on quantum physics and excitedly show people his telescope. “I am finding it so difficult to come to terms with the fact that those images are going to be of the past,” he said.
Expressing unhappiness about the dissection and analysis of Sushant’s death, Manoj said, “When I see the cacophony around me and people trying to find the reason behind the suicide…everyone has their own theory and we are not talking about the contribution that he has made at such a young age, the journey that he took and where he reached…it is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth. Why can’t we celebrate the person that he was?”
After performing as a background dancer at awards shows and events, Sushant got his first break in the show Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil, in which he had a supporting role. He shot to fame with the lead role in his second show, Pavitra Rishta, which made him an overnight sensation.
In 2011, Sushant quit Pavitra Rishta to make a career in films. He made his big screen debut with the critically and commercially successful Kai Po Che! in 2013 and acted in films such as Shuddh Desi Romance, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story and Chhichhore.
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