Actor Swastika Mukherjee says it is unfortunate that one will never get to know why Sushant Singh Rajput decided to end his life, but the manner in which the conversation around his death is being "fuelled with more assumptions, hate and evil" is beyond pathetic. Mukherjee starred with Rajput in the recently released "Dil Bechara", his swansong. The actors previously worked together in the 2015 crime thriller "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!".
Rajput's death last month sparked a discourse around mental health, nepotism, favoritism and has now been reduced to a blame game on social media.
On Tuesday, the actor's father, KK Singh lodged a police complaint against his rumoured girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty accusing her of abetting his suicide.
Mukherjee said unfortunately Rajput's family was never given the privacy to grieve after his death.
"We have forgotten the most important bit that he has a father whose loss is way, way more than the loss of his fans, followers or co-actors. What we really needed to do was, give them the time, space and place to grieve which we have been so irresponsible with. Nobody, whether family or fans, will ever get to know what happened.
Nobody is ever going to get closure," she told PTI in an interview.
"We just started harping on issues and they went on piling one after the other. People showing so much concern now could have shown the same concern when he was alive.
The whole conversation is now fuelled with more assumptions, hate and evil," she added.
The "Paatal Lok" star said issues like nepotism were prevalent even when Rajput was alive and will remain in the time to come, but the media should have covered the actor's death with more "sense and sensibility".
"Putting nepotism and the baggage of the rest of the conversation happens every day on social media from different sectors. Did they not exist six months ago or will they not exist six months later? Everything will be the same and people will also move on.
"Those who are in power to change the work place or ethics, they could have done this six months ago and they can also do it six months later. Why use someone's death to speak about everything you want to talk about? Media and people on social media are all lapping it up. We are not respecting the dead. We are not even respecting people in his family.
Mukherjee said working on "Dil Bechara", which is the directorial debut of casting director Mukesh Chhabra, was an "amazing experience to hold on to".
She plays Mrs Basu, mother to Kizie, played by Sanjana Sanghi, who made her debut as a leading lady with the film. It also stars "Kahaani" star Saswata Chatterjee with whom Mukherjee has worked in many Bengali films, including "Brake Fail", "Bhooter Bhabishyat".
"There are such happy memories with all of them. I never saw Mukesh lose his cool. He is such a caring director. It was as if Sanjana was in his cradle.I bonded enormously well with Sanjana.
"I have worked with Saswata Chatterjee before. Our fathers were industry colleagues. So our relationship goes long way," she said.
Mukherjee said after this, she has decided that she will connect with people even when the conversation doesn't revolve around work.
"After the shooting of a film is complete, people move on with their lives.If after two years also, you are in touch with people on and off.
.
.That's what I have got from this film. With social media, we can see what's going on with them.But even if we can just talk to people without work on our mind, just ask them 'Are you ok?' then that is something.
The actor is currently working on a Bengali film which reunites her with "Kia and Cosmos" director Sudipto Roy. The film will stream on Hoichoi.
Mukherjee will also be seen in two Hindi web series, the production on which have been "delayed indefinitely" due to coronavirus pandemic.
