A T-shirt featuring late actor Sushant Singh Rajput with the slogan, ‘Depression is like drowning’, has led to a furore, with Rajput’s fans slamming it, triggering the #BoycottFlipkart hashtag on Twitter. It has also opened a larger conversation around mental health, with psychologists saying it is a mockery and “insensitive imagery”.

Psychologist Divya Singh notes, “His death is still fresh in the hearts of his fans. And celebrity suicide can have a domino effect. The T-shirt row goes on to say how mental health is not understood in our community and how the ramification of such events can trigger those struggling with mental health.” 

“Such misinformation and disinformation can compound (exacerbate) mental health issues, making it more difficult for people to seek help,” says Natasha Mehta, a senior counselling psychologist, adding that “such a thing needs to be corrected publicly, through an apology or it will continue to exist on one platform or the other”.

His fans share that such images not only bring back bad memories but also affect them personally. “The T-shirt looks very good with the image of Sushant. But the only thing that I feel bad about is the words about depression. What was the need to put it there?” Rohit Lakhendra Thakur, a fan club administrator, says.

Meanwhile, the online shopping platform has removed the tee from the portal. When we tried to reach out to them, they said, “We have delisted the product/T-shirt depicting a sensitive issue that was flagged to us by customers.”