Smriti Irani had regrets after Sushant Singh Rajput death, consoled friend Amit Sadh: ‘Please don’t kill yourself’

Union Minister Smriti Irani recently revealed that she got emotional on the day of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June 2020. She had gotten to know the young man when they were both working on TV shows in Mumbai and wished that she had gotten a chance to speak to him on the phone. The former actor also recalled that she had told him, ‘Please don’t kill yourself.’ Afterwards, she also counselled Sushant’s co-star Amit Sadh who was also grieving for his friend. (Also read: Smriti Irani was called to work day after miscarriage, had to show proof to Ekta Kapoor: ‘Foetus bacha nahi warna…’)

Besides working on the same studios in Mumbai as television actors, Smriti Irani also had also interacted with the actor for a masterclass on the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) stage in Goa, when she was the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting in 2017. She now holds the posts for Women & Child Development and Minority Affairs.

Speaking with Neelesh Mishra on his YouTube show The Slow Interview in Hindi, Smriti Irani went through the events of June 14, 2020. She said, “The day Sushant died, I was on a video conference. 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, ‘please don’t kill yourself.”

She continued, “I remember feeling instantly worried about Amit. I called Amit and asked him what he was up to. He (Amit) told me he doesn’t want to live, what has he (Sushant Singh Rajput) done. I got the sense that something is wrong.” Amit and Sushant had acted together in the latter’s first film Kai Po Che in 2013. She went on to say that she spoke with Amit for six hours as she was worried for his emotional state.

Sushant was found dead in his Mumbai flat in June 2020; he was 34. The Mumbai Police ruled the cause of death as death by suicide after his autopsy. His family requested further investigations into the matter after they accused Sushant’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her family of misusing his funds and supplying him with drugs. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case a few months later.