Smriti Irani, Union minister of Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs, says she was deeply affected when she heard about the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The former actor got emotional as she remembered SSR in a recent interview. She also shared that after hearing about Sushant’s death, she immediately called actor Amit Sadh, whom she feared might also do something ‘stupid’.
Speaking to Neelesh Misra on The Slow Interview, Smriti recalled the day of Sushant’s passing. The actor died by suicide on June 14, 2020. She shared, “The day Sushant died, I was on a VC (video conference). There were many people. But I just couldn’t… I said stop it. I felt like, why did he not call me? He should have called once. I had told that boy, ‘Tum yaar maarna mat apne aap ko (Please don’t kill yourself).”
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Smriti shared that she knew Sushant as she had seen him working on the sets adjacent to hers in Mumbai. She had also invited him for a masterclass on the IFFI stage with Shekhar Kapur when she was the I&B minister. After he passed away, she mourned his demise on Twitter, and wrote, “I have no words, no understanding of why you left the way you did. From a bright young kid who came to Balaji to a star who made the Nation swoon.. you had come a long way and had many more miles to go. You will be missed #SushantSinghRajput gone too soon ..”
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She also knew actor Amit Sadh, who shared the screen with Sushant in the 2013 film Kai Po Che. Smriti called Amit immediately after she heard about Sushant’s passing away, out of concern for his well-being. “Instantly, I was scared for Amit Sadh. I called him and asked him what he is up to. I knew, kuch gadbad karega bachcha (he would do something stupid). Usne mujhe kaha, mujhe nahi rehna, kya kiya iss idiot ne (He told me, I don’t want to live, what did this idiot do) I got the sense that something is wrong. Publicist Rohini Iyer told me, ‘I am very scared, somebody just find him’,” Smriti shared.
She then called Amit and talked to him. “He asked me, ‘You don’t have work?’ I said, ‘I do, but just let’s talk’,” she added. The two spoke for six hours.
Amit Sadh had earlier shared how disturbed he was by Sushant’s death, and Smriti Irani helped him a lot during that time.
