We Have Ourselves A CBI Inquiry For SSR Case - by Vir Sanghvi

Sometimes the message becomes a more important medium. Most of the commentary after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput is focused on TV. Such phrases have been flown around as "tested by the media" and people have asked if the tragedy deserves continued saturation coverage.

Fair enough But let's be real. In any society, the sudden and unexpected death of a young film star will trigger lurid and sensational coverage. Twenty years after Marilyn Monroe was found dead, there were plot rounds on her overdose. (They still are.) The death of Michael Jackson kept the media entangled for months. So what Elvis Presley.

So yes, media coverage of the "SSR case" may seem over the top. But that is the nature of the animal. This is how the media around the world behaves in these situations. If we don't like the coverage, we can switch channels.

Whenever a famous, glamorous person meets an unexpected ending, we look for someone to blame. When Princess Diana died in a car accident, public anger focused on the paparazzi and the royal family. Later, conspiracy theories started (did M16 assassinate him?) And they never really went away.

Something similar has happened in SSR case as well. Once the blowout occurred, the public's mood changed to anger. People needed to blame someone. A lot of anger was directed at Bollywood, which was criticized for being too blasphemous, too lewd and too clubby. An outsider like Sushant, who did not grow up in a film family or Pali Hill or Juhu, did not really get acceptance in the fraternity.

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CBI to investigate actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death, Supreme Court orders today

Much of this anger was overcome and its goals were wrongly chosen. But the substance of the accusation is hard to deny. For all outsiders who have made it (Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, etc.), Bollywood is still a family business. People who run a lot of industries grew up together, lived near each other and their fathers lived together.

Bollywood has said in its defense that this is true for the Indian industry. But there is a difference. Indian industry is actually easier to break now than it was 30 years ago. Bollywood, which once welcomed Dilip Kumar, Dharmendra, Manoj Kumar, Sunil Dutt and so many people who came to Bombay with nothing, is now more of a closed shop.

If the anger had stopped here and if it had forced Bollywood to keep a close watch on itself for a long time, it would not have been a bad thing. When I started the uproar, the people of Bollywood resented the level of public outrage. But after beating him continuously for a week or two, he was quite worried thinking how much he thought about Central India along with his all-us-cool-friends.

But as the controversy has erupted, it has gone in very different directions and by now many people (movie stars, politicians, etc.) have jumped on the bandage for their own selfish reasons.

The always angry element was the Mumbai versus outsider element. But Bihar politicians, who are preparing to contest an assembly election, have turned that anger to play on the Bihari sentiment. Nitish Kumar's party's appeal to his voters is undoubtedly emotional and exploitative. A talented young Bihari died in Mumbai under mysterious circumstances. We will seek the truth and avenge it. Raise the slogan of "Bihari Yuva" campaign.

Riya Chakraborty and Sushant Singh Rajput (file photo)

Therefore, we had an unusual spectacle of Bihar Police, who arrived in Mumbai to conduct their investigation. This set a curious example. Mumbai is a metropolitan city. What happens if a Bengali who lives there dies? Will Mamata Banerjee send Bengal Police to investigate her death? Will the death of a Malayali attract a Kerala Police investigation?

Nitish was doing so for his domestic constituency and when the Mumbai police protested, he asked for the case to be transferred to the CBI - which the Supreme Court said today is necessary.

The center also got on the act. There are allegations that money was transferred from Sushant's account. But the citations cited (which in any case, turned out to be exaggerated) were hardly large enough for an Enforcement Directorate investigation. But a single order was given.

Then the BJP's Maharashtra unit, which these days, lives only to pull the Shiv Sena-led government, jumped into it. Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis turned himself into the story and started accusing him of how the case was handled. Subsequently, the social media handle suggested that Sushant's ex-girlfriend, Riya Chakraborty, might have some relationship with Aditya Thackeray. There was no evidence of this but it was used to smear young Shiv Sena heirs.

After this Chakraborty became the target. While the CBI is yet to investigate his (if any) role