Kangana Ranaut Claims Ankita Lokhande Told Her Sushant Singh Rajput ‘Suffered Humiliation, Was Not Thick-Skinned’

Kangana Ranaut claims she spoke with her Manikarnika co-star Ankita Lokhande after death of Sushant Singh Rajput. This is what she had to say.

Sushant Singh Rajput’s death created an outrage in the Hindi film industry. The actor’s death by suicide last month has led actor Kangana Ranaut to speak up against the ‘movie mafia’. In the latest interview with Times of India she claimed that Sushant’s former girlfriend Ankita Lokhande told her that he was subjected to ‘so much humiliation’ including negative ‘press and professional isolation’.

She further said that he made it in Bollywood from the television world after ‘audition after auditions’ and ‘rejections after rejections’. She claimed that even after becoming one of the sought actors he ‘remained grounded’ and was ‘sensitive to how he was perceived by others’.

Late Sushant Singh Rajput and Ankita Lokhande (File Photo)

Revealing that Kangana spoke to her Manikarnika co-star Ankita after Sushant’s death to get a better understanding of what he was like. “When I spoke to Ankita, she said right from the beginning, there was so much humiliation that he could not take it. This is how she summed it up”, she said.

She added, “But one thing that she (Ankita) also said about him was that he was not thick-skinned. He would sit on Twitter when he was new and would fight with fans, asking ‘why did you think that about me? Why did you say that about me? I am not this person that you are saying.’ Ankita told me that she used to tell him ki abhi ye toh hoga na. Everybody will have their perception of you, why are you so bothered about it? He just could not take that, he could not take what people thought about him. She said, over a period, the bad PR, the ganging up, the public humiliation, he just could not take it. He has had enough – that’s what she said.”

Kangana Ranaut/ Sushant Singh Rajput (Photo Courtesy: IANS)

Kangana claimed that Sushant sought validation from Bollywood. Kangana said that Ankita told her that Sushant was not like her, ‘intellectual, kept away from gossip and passionate about his work’. “People like us, when we come from outside, we are enamored by them. And that’s what even Ankita told me about Sushant. He wanted to be accepted. She said, ‘Kangana, Sushant was exactly like you… he was very intellectual, he would not gossip about anyone, and was very invested in what he did. He had that small-town personality.’ But she said that ‘the only difference was that he wanted to be accepted. You somehow have gotten over that urge”, she said.

Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide on June 14 by hanging himself at his Bandra residence in Mumbai. Mumbai Police is investigating the case and has summoned over 30 people in connection with it.