Anatomy of a death

Listen to excerpts from Outlook's Suicide Isn't A Moral Question issue, by Pragya Vats.  #Suicide #OutlookMagazine

Transcript

00:00 This is Pragya and I bring to you excerpts from the latest issue of Outlook,

00:04 "Suicide isn't a moral question."

00:07 The issue looks at serious public health concerns that suicide poses.

00:10 7,03,000 people die by suicide every year, according to the World Health Organization.

00:17 Suicide is a political, economic, societal, cultural, and mental health question.

00:22 September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day,

00:26 and the issue delves into farmer suicide, student suicide, and suicides that have been caused by trauma.

00:32 India decriminalized Suicide with Mental Health Act in 2017.

00:38 "Anatomy of a Death" by Tanul Thakur from Outlook.

00:41 Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide was too complex for many to process,

00:45 so the country indulged in a baffling alchemy, converting suicide to murder.

00:51 The decoy drama "Sonshiraya" starring Manoj Bajpai and Sushant Singh Rajput was released on March 1st, 2019.

00:58 An excellent film, but it was a box office disaster, grossing a meager 9.7 crore rupees.

01:05 If we consider the average ticket price in India to be Rs. 119,

01:09 according to the February 2023 Statista study, then around 8.1 lakh people watched the movie.

01:16 Less than the population of Andheri, as if Rajput did not even exist.

01:21 15 months later, on 14th June 2020, his body was found hanging from the ceiling of his Bandra West apartment.

01:29 And in coming months, amid COVID-19 ravaging lives, the Chinese army advancing towards the border,

01:35 migrant workers trudging to their homes, many collapsing on the way,

01:39 the country indulged in a baffling alchemy, converting suicide to murder.

01:44 Kangana Ranaut led the charge.

01:46 In her fellow actor's demise, an actor found what she craves her entire life, a perfect story.

01:52 She posted a two-minute video, rubbishing Rajput suffering from depression, and asked a question.

01:58 So was it a suicide or a planned murder?

02:00 Ranaut deployed the classic "no smoke without fire" tactic.

02:04 Bollywood is incredibly nepotistic, and enough reports had surfaced over the years

02:09 about Rajput's uneasy equation with the film industry's dynasts, Yash Raj films and Dharma productions.

02:16 In the subsequent weeks, this case began to unfold like a TV series,

02:20 producing a steady stream of episodes, villains and subplots.

02:25 First came Karan Johar, Sanjay Leela Bansali, Shekhar Suman with his Justice for Sushant forum,

02:31 then fans, politicians and TV channels.

02:34 Rajput's family entered in late July, filing an FIR against his girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty,

02:40 for the abetment of suicide, and five days later, on 30th July, a tweet by Subramaniam Swamy,

02:46 "Why I think Sushant Singh Rajput was murdered."

02:49 It accompanied a photo detailing 26 pieces of evidence, 24 of them such as "no eye pop out",

02:56 SSR playing video game on the morning of 14th June, and the body language of friends,

03:01 that supported the theory of murder, someone who couldn't spell Sushant had become a self-appointed investigator.

03:08 For these and more, read the latest issue of Outlook.

03:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]