Sushant Singh Rajput facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sushant Singh Rajput
Rajput in 2016
Born	(1986-01-21)21 January 1986 Patna, Bihar, India
Died	14 June 2020(2020-06-14) (aged 34) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2008–2020
Signature

Sushant Singh Rajput (born January 21, 1986 – died June 14, 2020) was a famous Indian actor. He was well-known for his work in Bollywood films.

Sushant starred in many successful Hindi movies. Some of his most popular films include M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), Kedarnath (2018), and Chhichhore (2019). His acting earned him a Screen Award and three nominations for the Filmfare Awards. He was also listed twice among the top 100 celebrities by Forbes India.

Sushant started his acting journey after leaving his engineering studies at Delhi College of Engineering. He first joined the theatre world in Mumbai. Later, he moved to Hindi television shows. His first show was Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil (2008). He then played the main role in the popular soap opera Pavitra Rishta (2009–2011).

Sushant made his big screen debut with the film Kai Po Che! (2013). This movie was a hit with both critics and audiences. He then played a tourist guide in the romantic comedy Shuddh Desi Romance (2013). He also starred as a detective in the action thriller Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015).

He also appeared in other films like Raabta (2017), Sonchiriya (2019), and Drive (2019). His highest-earning movies were PK (2014), where he had a supporting role, and M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, where he played the lead role of the famous cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni. For his role as Dhoni, he was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor and won an award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Besides acting, Sushant also started a nonprofit organization and co-founded a technology startup.

Sushant Singh Rajput passed away at his home in Bandra, Mumbai, in June 2020. He was 34 years old. His last film, Dil Bechara (2020), was released online after his death.

Early Life and Education

Sushant Singh Rajput was born in Patna, Bihar. His father, Krishna Kumar Singh, was a retired technical officer. Sushant was the youngest of five children and his nickname was Gulshan. One of his four sisters, Mitu Singh, was a state-level cricket player.

He went to St. Karen's High School in Patna. After his mother passed away in 2002, his family moved to Delhi. There, he finished his schooling at Kulachi Hansraj Model School.

Sushant was known for being a very keen reader. He was deeply interested in astrophysics, which is the study of stars and space. He even won the Indian National Physics Olympiad. He got into the Delhi College of Engineering (now Delhi Technological University) to study mechanical engineering. However, Sushant later said he wasn't really interested in engineering. He dreamed of becoming an astronaut or an air force pilot. He also loved Bollywood and was a big fan of Shah Rukh Khan.

Sushant's Acting Journey

Starting in TV (2006–2011)

While studying engineering, Sushant joined Shiamak Davar's dance classes. Soon after, he also started taking acting lessons with theatre director Barry John. Sushant felt very free and happy while acting and wanted to do it forever. He appeared as a background dancer in the song Dhoom Again from the movie Dhoom 2. He also danced during Aishwarya Rai's performance at the 2006 Commonwealth Games closing ceremony.

In 2006, Sushant left his engineering course in his fourth year to focus on acting. He moved to Mumbai and took small jobs while working in theatre. He joined a theatre group called Ekjute for two and a half years.

A casting team from Balaji Telefilms noticed him while he was performing at the Prithvi Theatre. He was then chosen for a supporting role in the TV series Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil in 2008. He played Preet Singh Juneja. Even though his character was killed off early, he was so popular that he was brought back as a spirit in the show's final episode. The show's producer, Ekta Kapoor, was impressed by him. She insisted he be cast as the main lead in another series, Pavitra Rishta.

In Pavitra Rishta, Sushant played Manav Deshmukh, an "ideal son and husband." He starred alongside Ankita Lokhande. This role was a big success for him. He won several TV awards, including his first best actor award at the Indian Television Academy Awards in 2010. He also won three other major TV awards for best male actor.

In 2010, he joined the dance reality show Zara Nachke Dikha in its second season. He was part of the Mast Kalandar Boys team. On Mother's Day, his team dedicated a performance to his late mother. Later that year, he also took part in Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, another dance competition. He and his choreographer, Shampa Sonthalia, were the runners-up.

Sushant continued acting in Pavitra Rishta from 2009 until he left in 2011. He played the main character for two and a half years. He said he wanted to go to the United States to study filmmaking. He had already gained some experience working behind the scenes as an assistant director for the film Raaz 2. He made a special appearance in the final episode of Pavitra Rishta in 2014, after becoming famous in Bollywood.

First Films and Big Breaks (2011–2015)

From left to right: Sushant, Rajkummar Rao, Abhishek Kapoor and Amit Sadh at a promotion for Kai Po Che! in 2013

In 2011, Mukesh Chhabra, the casting director for Kai Po Che!, saw Sushant and invited him to audition. Sushant was planning to enroll in a filmmaking course at Stanford University but decided to take the film offer instead. He was cast as Ishaan Bhatt, one of three main friends in the movie. The film was directed by Abhishek Kapoor and was based on a book about three friends affected by the 2001 Gujarat earthquake and the 2002 Gujarat riots. Kai Po Che! was released in 2013 and was a big success. Sushant was nominated for a Filmfare Awards for best debut actor.

Before Kai Po Che! was even released, Sushant was chosen by director Rajkumar Hirani for a role in the film PK, which starred Aamir Khan. In PK, Sushant played the boyfriend of Anushka Sharma's character. He also signed a deal with Yash Raj Films for a starring role in Shuddh Desi Romance. This romantic comedy, released in 2013, became a surprise hit. After his first two films, director Shekhar Kapur called Sushant "one of the most inspiring young actors to emerge out of India." Some even called him the "next SRK" (Shah Rukh Khan). The film PK was released in 2014 and became one of the highest-earning Indian films.

In June 2013, Yash Raj Films and Dibakar Banerjee Productions announced their movie Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! with Sushant Singh Rajput in the main role. Sushant started working on this film after Shuddh Desi Romance. It was a mystery action-thriller about a fictional detective named Byomkesh Bakshi. Before the film's release, Sushant made a special appearance on the TV show CID as Byomkesh Bakshy. The film was released on April 3, 2015. It didn't do well at the box office but received good reviews from critics.

Dhoni Biopic and More (2015–2018)

In 2011, there was an idea to make a movie about the life of Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. On September 25, 2014, Sushant Singh Rajput was announced as the actor who would play Dhoni in the biopic, titled M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. The film was directed by Neeraj Pandey. It told the story of Dhoni's life, from his childhood in Ranchi to India's victory in the 2011 Cricket World Cup under his leadership.

Sushant was not a natural cricketer, so he trained for 13 months to learn the game and copy Dhoni's playing style. He was coached by Kiran More, who trained him like a professional athlete. The film was released on October 2, 2016, and became the 5th highest-earning Bollywood film that year. Sushant received great praise for his performance. He was nominated for several awards, including the Filmfare Awards, and won an award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. He also had a small appearance in the comedy film Welcome to New York (2018), where characters mistook him for Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Sushant with Kriti Sanon at a promotional event for Raabta in Kolkata.

Around the time M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story was released, Sushant mentioned he had signed up for five more films. One of these was Raabta, a love story that crossed different times. Sushant played two characters who were reincarnations of each other. The film was released on June 9, 2017. It received mixed reviews and did not do well at the box office. In 2017, Sushant was featured for the first time on the Forbes India's Top 100 Celebrity list.

In March 2017, Sushant also started filming Drive with Jacqueline Fernandez, produced by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. The film was directed by Tarun Mansukhani.

Also in March 2017, Sushant was signed for the film Kedarnath, directed by Abhishek Kapoor. It was a love story set during the 2013 floods in Uttarakhand. Sushant starred with Sara Ali Khan. He played Mansoor, a Muslim porter who was devoted to Lord Shiva. The film's shooting began in September 2017. Kedarnath became a commercial success. It was the second highest-earning film starring Sushant, after the Dhoni biopic.

New Ventures and Later Career (2018–2020)

On May 2, 2018, Sushant became a partner and director in a company called Innsaei Ventures. This company focused on intellectual property and emerging technologies. Soon after, NITI Aayog (a policy think tank of the Indian government) made him a brand ambassador for the Women Entrepreneurship Platform and to promote the BHIM mobile payment app. Innsaei Ventures also set up a fund to support the Women Entrepreneurship Platform. In the same year, Sushant announced that Innsaei Ventures would create a 12-part biopic series, where he would play various Indian historical figures.

In early 2018, Sushant began filming Sonchiriya. This was a historical drama set in the 1970s. He played Lakhna, a lieutenant in a gang of dacoits (bandits). The film was released on March 1, 2019. It received good reviews but did not become a big commercial success.

In 2018, Sushant was also chosen by Nitesh Tiwari, the director of the hit film Dangal, for his new movie Chhichhore. The filming began in September. It was a romantic comedy where Sushant played Anirudh Pathak, a divorced husband who tells his teenage son about his college life. The film was released on September 6, 2019, and earned a lot of money, becoming the third movie starring Sushant to cross a major box office milestone after PK and the Dhoni biopic. Chhichhore also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.

In January 2019, Sushant mentioned he was in talks for 12 other films. He had left the film Chanda Mama Door Ke earlier due to scheduling conflicts. He stated he would produce his own space film through Innsaei Ventures. In September 2019, he became a director of another company called Vividrage Rhealtyx. The long-delayed film Drive was finally released directly on Netflix in November 2019.

On January 6, 2020, Sushant also started a nonprofit organisation (NGO) called Front India for World Foundation. Its goal was to help end poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, and promote better healthcare and sanitation. Before that, he had donated money to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund after the 2018 Kerala floods, on behalf of one of his fans. In 2019, he was again featured in Forbes' annual Top 100 Celebrity list.

Since 2017, Sushant was signed for the directorial debut of Mukesh Chhabra. This was a Hindi language remake of the Hollywood hit film The Fault in Our Stars. Mukesh Chhabra was also the casting director who first discovered Sushant for Kai Po Che!. Filming began on July 9, 2018, in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. Sushant said he had a great bond with Chhabra and had promised to be in his first film. The movie, based on the novel by John Green, was first called Kizie aur Manny. It was later renamed Dil Bechara. Sushant co-starred with Sanjana Sanghi and played Manny, a character with bone cancer. The film also featured Saif Ali Khan and music by A. R. Rahman. Its release was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the end, it was released online on Disney+ Hotstar after his death. It broke records for viewership in its first 24 hours, with about 95 million viewers.

Personal Life and Interests

Sushant with Ankita Lokhande at Kai Po Che's premiere

Sushant Singh Rajput's personal life often caught the media's attention. In 2011, he publicly proposed to his Pavitra Rishta co-star Ankita Lokhande during a TV dance show called Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa. They had started dating after meeting on the set of Pavitra Rishta, where they played husband and wife. They lived together starting in 2012. In January 2016, Sushant confirmed they planned a wedding, but their relationship ended before that.

Sushant had many interesting hobbies. In 2017, he became a co-owner of Delhi Gladiators, a team in the Super Boxing League. For his role in the film Chanda Mama Door Ke, he got to train at NASA. He even planned to go back to NASA to complete instructor training, hoping to be chosen for the 2024 Artemis program to the Moon.

He loved astronomy and astrophysics. He bought a high-end Meade LX-600 16" telescope to watch the stars. He also had a collection of 125 books, including a six-volume series on theoretical physics. Sushant said his book collection was not just for film research, but for his personal interests in many subjects, like cognitive science and behavioral economics. He was known for bringing books with him during film shoots.

Death

On June 14, 2020, Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his home in Bandra, Mumbai. He was 34 years old.

Films and TV Shows

Films

Television

Music Videos

Awards and Nominations

Sushant Singh Rajput at the Filmfare Awards

See also

In Spanish: Sushant Singh Rajput para niños

• List of Indian film actors