I am losing a number of my friends who don’t see eye-to-eye with what happened to Sushant Singh Rajput. I hope with the CBI’s investigation, the truth comes out soon,” says Aman Yatan Verma, who believes people need to understand that this is a political game.

Verma is unhappy that while news channels are “cooking up new stories daily”, people aren’t “even thinking about issues like the GDP, economy, unemployment or migrants”. “But people know all about Rhea (Chakraborty) and her family and about her WhatsApp chats,” he adds.

He is upset about the entire film industry being labelled as ‘drug users’. Verma shares, “I don’t do drugs, or smoke or drink. And there are many actors like me who worked hard to make a place for ourselves.” While he believes this might be a bad phase for the industry, he also feels it’s the time to show solidarity, which isn’t happening. “This is the time to speak up for the industry. Everyone is scared and so people are taking advantage. People have to voice their opinions like Jaya ji (Bachchan) did in Parliament,” he says.

Verma feels sorry for Rajput’s family as “everyone has forgotten him”. “By being part of a conversation on him, you are getting eyeballs, which is sad,” says the actor, who is shooting for a film “inspired by current events” including Rajput’s death probe. Ask if the film too is trying to get eyeballs and he says, “People might think so but it’s an inspired version, not a blatant copy.”