Remembering Sushant Singh Rajput: 5 Things That Set Him Apart From His Contemporaries

I distinctly remember that June 14th, 2020 was a regular Sunday until I heard about Sushant Singh Rajput’s shocking demise. Losing someone so bright, so soon—it just did not make any sense. I spent the rest of the day dealing with palpitations and an unshakable sense of gloom. Pretty sure I wasn’t the only one feeling that way. 

To so many of us, Sushant’s death felt like a personal loss and there was a reason behind it. He wasn’t your conventional, everyday movie star. He was different. If you may—a literal star who shone brighter than everyone else. He was so humble, so simple and yet such an enigma. Today marks one year of his tragic demise. And to commemorate the beautiful soul, we look back at everything that made him different from his contemporaries. Read on.

He Was Chasing Something Bigger Than Stardom

Part of Sushant’s charm was that he wasn’t chasing stardom or even money. He was chasing something bigger. He had made it quite clear in a 2015 interview, where he said, “I am not in this for the designer labels and the autograph I am not saying that those who crave for conventional stardom are wrong in their aspirations. But that’s not what I want.”

What he actually wanted to do was chase his big beautiful dreams ranging from painting the Aurora Borealis to charting the Moon’s trajectory. In fact, he had a handwritten bucket list of mighty, fascinating dreams and had already ticked off 12 of them before he died of suicide on June 14th.

He Saw Beauty In Everything

Days after Sushant’s death, Shraddha Kapoor opened about the loss and talked about how he had a way of seeing beauty in everything. She wrote, “Dearest Sush…! Full of humility, intelligence, curiosity about life, seeing beauty in everything, everywhere! He danced to his own tune! I always looked forward to seeing him on set, wondering what captivating interaction we would have next! Apart from being a wonderful co-actor who put his heart and soul in to his work, he was at his core, an amazing person. He cared for people and wanted to see them happy. His kind smile, the conversations we had at shoot about the Cosmos, different philosophies, the moments we spent together, were filled with magical wonderment!”

In the note, she also recollected how Sushant once showed her the moon with his telescope. “During a lovely musical and poetry filled get together at his home (he loved music and poetry), he showed me the moon from his telescope and I was so speechless that I could see it’s exquisite beauty up close!! He wanted to share that feeling! Our Chhichhore gang went to his beautiful home in Pavna, where we were awestruck together with the peace and calm of the nature around us – he loved nature! He saw things through a kaleidoscopic lens and wanted to share that with everyone around him. He was mesmerized by the simplest things and would muse on them in a genius way…! He was truly, One of a kind… I’ll miss you.. dearest Sush.. Shine on,” she wrote. 

His Humility

Most of the filmmakers that worked with Sushant remember him as one of the most humble stars that they have ever worked with. After his death, Aryann Bhowmik, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy’s director actually wrote a column about his humility. “I met Sushant Singh Rajput for the first time during the look test of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! It was my first Hindi project. Within an hour, he made it extremely easy to work with him. He had no intimidating stardom. I had most of my scenes with him. I saw him as a down-to-earth and humble actor who was extremely passionate about his work. It was an inspiration for me to see him working. He used to be engrossed in his work. He was such an inspiration that time,” he shared. 

It’s also said that the late actor charged only half of his remuneration for Dil Bechara after seeing the team struggling to get it together. Also, he did not charge any money whatsoever for his role in PK. He had shared in an interview that his admiration for Rajkumar Hirani was so much that he did the film for free. In a way, he did this film just for the experience of working with the filmmaker. 

He Wanted To Grow With Everyone

Sushant was one of those people who are always excited about life. He was always looking forward to something new. Also, he was always working on something for the betterment of those around him. For the unversed, he used to send selected kids to NASA. These underprivileged kids would get to visit NASA, stay there for a few weeks and get the experience of a lifetime. 

Back in 2019, he also collaborated with NITI Aayog to promote the BHIM app (an app that enables everyone to make online transactions through a very simple interface) and women’s entrepreneurship. 

His Passion For Art

Just like he had a reverence for science, Sushant also had a reverence for art. That’s one of the reasons why he got into acting. He talked about the same in a 2019 interview and shared, “In the day and age when everything is served on the internet, we need to think about all the collaborative and associative ways of aligning to each other. We need to talk more about collaboration patterns and networks. We understand that society would prefer one sort of entertainment over the other. But art is not science. Science is quantifiable but art isn’t.”

As we said, he wasn’t like your average movie star. Here’s hoping that he is in a better place now. 

Featured Image: Instagram