MUMBAI, (Reuters) – Indian police will probe whether an up-and-coming Bollywood actor who committed suicide at the weekend was depressed in part due to “professional rivalry,” in a film industry that is dominated by big names and has been accused of being insular.
Sushant Singh Rajput, a 34 year-old actor who won acclaim and fans for his roles in several top-draw films, hailed from a middle-class family with no Bollywood connections – a relative rarity in the industry.
Several of Rajput’s friends in the industry have written about his struggles to break through, while social media and some cultural commentators have criticized the allegedly closed culture in Bollywood, where some families have dominated for up to four generations.
At least half a dozen accounts by Rajput’s industry colleagues suggested Bollywood’s clique-drive culture ostracized him, although none provided concrete details and it was not immediately clear who specifically they were talking about.
I knew the story of the people who let you down so bad that you used to weep on my shoulder,” Shekhar Kapur, who was supposed to direct Rajput in a film that was eventually shelved, wrote in a tweet on Monday.
