After playing supporting roles in films like Rockstar, Hindi Medium and Fukrey Returns, Sanjana Sanghi stepped into the lead space with Dil Bechara. The film wasn’t the typical Bollywood launchpad for the actress, but it rolled out a platform for her to step on and show her acting skills from the start. A year down, Sanjana recalls the time when the film released amidst the furore over her costar Sushant Singh Rajput’s sudden death. From the bond that she shared with the actor, how he taught her about ‘rationing’ her energy, to how her experiences of playing Kizie Basu left her feeling more equipped as a performer — she shares it all. Read on…

Honestly, you dream big, but you also want to manage your hopes and expectations. When I came to Mumbai, I had to navigate through everything myself, and there was no roadmap for me. One can dream of getting launched with a traditional project where the heroine gets to look glamourous, but here, I was in hair that wasn’t blow-dried and sported a no make-up look. This project had its own perks though.

I still remember the afternoon when I got a call for Dil Bechara, which is the Hindi remake of the Hollywood film The Fault In Our Stars. When I heard that I was being approached for the part of Hazel Grace Lancaster... I can never forget the feeling of blood flowing through my body. This opportunity surpassed all my dreams. When I was a teenager, I had read that book by John Green over 10 times. What A R Rahman sir did with the music and Sushant did with the dialogues made the movie bigger than a dream.

Kizie Basu took over my life for two-and-a-half years. I let the director hold my hand and introduce me to the world of my character. At the age of 21, I dealt with the topics of strength, mortality and what it was like to battle an illness. Kizie wounded and healed me. Over a period of time, I had started to feel comfortable as Kizie. By the time we started shooting, the character had enveloped me completely. It was only when the project got over that I pushed myself to move on. I now know how demanding a leading actor’s job can be and what it means to be committed to a project. As an actor, today, I feel far more equipped.

We met for the first time at Mukesh (Chhabra, director) sir’s office, where we did our reading. Within five minutes of the meeting, we realised that we both are nerds, are obsessed with everything academic and lived for the love of food! The other common point of interest was Delhi. While I hailed from Delhi, he had studied there. The performances you see in the film are all because of teamwork as it’s a completely performance-oriented movie. It didn’t boast of any fancy song sequences or stunts, but relied on human emotions and relationships. The one thing Sushant taught me was to save my energy. He made me realise how important it was to conserve energy by not putting in all of it when not required, for instance, the wide-angle shots. He used to call it ‘rationing’ of the energy.

It was all supposed to be different, right? Like, all of it! But once everything just changed the way it did... there was no looking back. The day the film released, it created records with millions of people watching the movie on the first day. That’s an unreal number. With the kind of love and respect the film got, how can I have any regrets? It was quite an ode. Sushant and I were excited about the project through its making. We would discuss which colleges we would be visiting to promote the film. We even thought of the songs from the film that we planned to croon during the promotions and wondered whether we would be able to revisit the theatre in Jamshedpur where we shot the film.

KHUDA HAAFIZ which was released on Disney+ Hotstar in August and was one of the very few OTT successes of the year along with LAXMII, COOLIE NO 1 and DIL BECHARA. It has reiterated with success on satellite as it racked up almost 55 lakh impressions. It's success is not at the level of COMMANDO 3 which also featured the same actor Vidyut Jammwal but 10 lakh views on OTT on release and 55 lakh impressions on satellite release are decent results especially in this horrible year.

GUNJAN SAXENA - THE KARGIL GIRL which also released in August on Netflix in had mediocre results on satellite as it recorded 31.5 lakh impressions on release. This is 42% less than KHUDA HAAFIZ. Although its actually better than DIL BECHARA, but that's not saying much as DIL BECHARA was not much of a film and its OTT success was mainly as the release was post the death of its lead actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The numbers of GUNJAN SAXENA - THE KARGIL GIRL on satellite means its pretty much lights out for the film in the long run.

The biggest BLOCKBUSTER ever in Indian cinema SHOLAY (1975) again showed the force it is still today as it racked up almost 45 lakh impressions. This is 45 years after release and the audience still cant get enough of the epic. Its the greatest example of critics mouth saying one thing and the paying public doing exactly the opposite. The pocket never lies but words coming out of mouths of critics are usually lack of knowledge on films or lies and there is no bigger proof of that than SHOLAY.

On September 30, The Ministry of Home Affairs announced new unlock provisions whereby movie theatres outside the containment zones are allowed to reopen from October 16 with 50 per cent occupancy. While theatres in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and some other states continue to remain shut, exhibitors across the rest of the country are ready to resume business. Ananya Panday and Ishaan Khatter’s Khaali Peeli, and Vivek Oberoi’s PM Narendra Modi were the first films to be announced, now a few other films, including Thappad, Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, Malang, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (SMZS) and War, have joined the list of reruns.

Thappad director Anubhav Sinha believes that his film, which opened on February 28 this year, had its run cut short by the Coronavirus-triggered pandemic. “We got only two weeks in theatres despite doing around 80 per cent business of the first week in the second which is a fair indicator that the film would’ve run for roughly six more weeks. It’s heartening that eight months after its initial release, it still has promise at the box office,” he says.

Meena Iyer, CEO, Ajay Devgn Ffilms, is happy to contribute to the resurgence of the business with Tanhaji. “The film had an amazing run, but if exhibitors feel that it can attract more footfalls, we’re happy to help. The further it travels, the happier we are,” she asserts.

For SMZS director Hitesh Kewalya, reruns are not for box office glory. “We got a good three-week run during the initial release and the film has a social message that is still relevant. Right now, the aim is to just gauge the audience and accustom them to community-viewing,” he reasons.

Bhushan Kumar, producer of four films up for re-release—Malang, Thappad, Tanhaji and SMZS—agrees that reruns are a way to learn the audience’s needs. “Reopening of theatres is good news for the industry. All four of our films have been successful during initial release. This time they’ll help us gauge audiences’ concerns and plan future releases accordingly,” he shares, adding that, not just theatre owners but also the audience need to strictly follow guidelines.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh believes that these are just baby steps towards bringing the audience back to theatres. “It’s time to press the reset button. No one is looking at box office figures right now, it’s just about cultivating the habit of going back to cinema. The returns will be very low initially,” he avers, adding that the priority is to provide livelihood to people who’ve been out of business for the last seven months. “Over the years, cinema has faced a lot of roadblocks, but it has always survived and this too shall pass,” he concludes.

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Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; September 3, 2020)

He was a part of Sushant Singh Rajput’s innermost circle of people, who held a special place in the actor’s life and were a part of his dream projects. In the light of the recent turn of events in the SSR case, Samuel Haokip spoke to BT about the man he knew and admired. Excerpts:

After Rhea Chakraborty’s TV interviews, a Thailand trip is being spoken about where Sushant apparently spent about Rs. 70 lakh…
I didn’t go on that one, but there were seven people who went. Kushal (Zaveri), Siddhant Gupta, Sara Ali Khan, Sushant, Abbas, Mushtaq and Sabir Ahmed. But I have travelled with Sushant to Paris for Dil Bechara and it was amazing. On set, he would keep himself aligned to the thought of the film, which was about a guy struggling with a serious disease. Otherwise, he was happy to have fun. He booked us in another accommodation on the outskirts of Paris, so he could just roam around and chill.

In the last few days, two things have come to the fore — one has to do with Sandip Ssingh, who claimed to be a really close friend, and was at the forefront handling Sushant’s final rites. The other is about Sushant consuming drugs, which has got the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) involved...
I left in June 2019 and till then, Sushant had nothing to do with drugs. We had multiple parties at home with cigarettes and alcohol. We were staying with Sushant. He could fool us once, but not every single day. If he hid and did something, we were not fools to not understand the evident and sudden change in behaviour. As for Sandip, I had never heard Sushant mentioning him. Neither was he ever at the house during that period. In fact, I was not just home, but also with Sushant on his sets, sometimes two shifts in a day. He never mentioned this man. So, when I saw a lot of media speaking about Sandip, I thought maybe he was an old friend.

After Rhea’s interview, people have aligned themselves on either side, throwing open threads of Sushant’s private life. Even the #MeToo allegations levelled against him are back in the headlines. What are your views on this?
The whole nation, and so many groups from different countries are asking for a fair and transparent investigation into his untimely demise. I hope everything comes out. The whole #MeToo controversy affected Sushant. It all started from there, all of us in the team feel so. How difficult it must have been for him to handle the negative reactions, trolling on social media and the evident dislike...

What do you feel about Rhea’s interviews?
I felt she was not asked some important questions. He had done an interview in which he was talking about being in a closed space, where he could stay 25 minutes more than the others. I also have my own experience, as I’ve travelled with him a lot.

Did you stay in touch with Sushant after you left Capri Heights?
No, I didn’t. We spoke just once after that. In January this year, I tried contacting him. I had been with him for a while, so I knew he could be caught up. I sent a message but it had one tick, meaning he had changed his number. I sent the same message to Rhea. She didn’t reply either. I dropped it there.

As stay-at-home period runs into its sixth month, viewership tracking firm reveals Dil Bechara, Special Ops have emerged most popular film and show
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; August 26, 2020)

In a domino effect of sorts, the Coronavirus lockdown caused a shift in the entertainment consumption patterns of the Indian population. A country that has had more than its fill of dramas about shape-shifting serpents and family feuds turned to digital entertainment, thus discovering the grim journey of Hathoda Tyagi or rooting for Sushmita Sen as the unlikely queen of a drug cartel. As we enter the sixth month of lockdown, it is only fitting to determine which series and direct-to-web releases grabbed maximum eyeballs and dominated the mainstream consciousness.

Refusing to divulge numbers, Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media, reveals that direct-to-web releases, though a recent phenomenon in the Hindi film industry, found an eager audience. "Dil Bechara has been the top film by a wide margin, followed by Gulabo Sitabo, Extraction, Shakuntala Devi and Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, in that order. These are based on estimates," he says. The results are arrived at basis the social media buzz generated by each offering, its reach and appeal.

Even as Paatal Lok captured the imagination of the country post its May 15 release and Jitendra Kumar sealed his position as an Internet star with the endearing Panchayat, Kapoor reveals that it is, in fact, an espionage thriller that tops the list of the most-watched Indian web series. "Disney+ Hotstar's Special Ops fared the best. Amazon Prime's Paatal Lok comes second, followed by Voot Select's Asur." Amazon Prime's Panchayat and Disney+ Hotstar's Aarya round off the top five shows.

He observes that TV consumption increased by 40 per cent during the lockdown, with viewers tuning in to news on a daily basis. The top five television offerings between April and June, when old shows were being rerun, were Ramayan (Doordarshan), Mahabharat (Doordarshan), Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah (Sony SAB), Mahabharat (Star Plus) and Shri Krishna (DD). "With fresh episodes being aired from July, Kundali Bhagya has become the most-watched show followed by Taarak Mehta..., Anupamaa, The Kapil Sharma Show and India's Best Dancer."

Shreya Mukherjee (HINDUSTAN TIMES; August 12, 2020)

Content with the positive response his debut directorial Dil Bechara has been garnering, Mukesh Chhabra misses having late actor Sushant Singh Rajput by his side to celebrate. Dil Bechara, a remake of the Hollywood film The Fault In Our Stars (2014), was Rajput’s last film. Chhabra had revealed that Rajput was excited about the film and kept his promise to be a part of his directorial debut.

“Sushant would have been really happy. Everything he did, he did to make people happy and bring a smile on their faces. I think he would have been really proud… I can’t stop thinking how different and meaningful it would be with him around. I miss his smile and his pure soul. I miss calling him brother a lot,” says Chhabra. “People are saying lovely things about the film. Be it the on-point portrayal of characters, their emotional journey, and the honesty of the film,” adds Chhabra.

Those who had known Rajput closely have mostly spoke about his happy-go-lucky nature, siding reports of him showing any signs of being stressed or depressed. Chhabra affirms the thought saying, “Sushant was always such a happy guy. No one would ever even imagine such things about him. He was always playful and so energetic on set.” On whether Rajput ever mentioned about anything bothering him or behaved in a certain way, Chhapra replies, “No, he didn’t but like I said, he was always playful and energetic whenever we met.” Ask him about the ongoing investigation into Rajput’s death case and Chhabra says not much except, “everything is going as per law”.

Meanwhile, he is occupied with his upcoming work. Given the current crisis, he is trying his best to progress as much possible. “I’m learning to live with the new normal and approaching each day and each project as it comes,” he says, without divulging details about his next projects.

Shreya Mukherjee (HINDUSTAN TIMES; August 3, 2020)

Late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death has stirred up a number of conversations surrounding nepotism and favouritism in the film industry. Actor Swastika Mukherjee is hopeful that things will change now, but she feels that some people are going overboard and have forgotten about Rajput’s grieving family.

“Right now, the situation is such that one runs the risk of being misinterpreted. But I’m still trying to understand, where are these paranormal conversations, assumptions and presumptions coming from?” she says.

Insisting that nepotism exists in every industry, Mukherjee, 39, asks, “Why does the hammer always fall on the entertainment industry? Why is our profession looked at from a different perspective, especially female actors. Questions are being raised about our character and how we lead our lives.”

While celebrities are often expected to have an opinion on everything being debated upon, Mukherjee believes that right now, everyone wants to share their views but it’s to settle their personal score. “I don’t like agenda-driven conversations. Why do I want to sell my points of view based on somebody’s demise?” asks the actor, adding that much like others, she also thought the news of Rajput’s death was fake.

She sounds disturbed as she shares, “After I got the news, I switched off my phone. It was difficult. I lost my father (actor Santu Mukherjee) in March and then Sushant. I was confused about what’s hurting me more. Memories of shooting Dil Bechara with Sushant and my father being excited about the film came rushing back. And now, both of them aren’t here when the film has actually released.”
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‘SUSHANT HAD BIPOLAR DISORDER’
Late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s therapist, Susan Moffat Walker, broke her silence on the actor’s condition and in a statement to Mojo Story , she said, “Sushant was suffering from bipolar disorder and had bouts of depression and hypomania. Rhea was his strongest support…” Reacting to Walker’s statement, while Rajput’s sister Shweta Singh Kirti tweeted, “It is outright illegal”, her husband Vishal Kirti, too, wrote a long blog post. “...Mental health information is protected by the law of the land. Disclosing this information is not only unethical but also illegal...” He questioned Walker’s diagnosis of Rajput’s condition and the part of her statement where she says that his treatment was sought by Rhea Chakraborty (girlfriend) and not Rajput himself.

As Sushant Singh Rajput's kin and friend trade allegations, Bihar police sources say they will question his colleagues to know if he was under stress
Uma Ramasubramanian, Vishal Singh (MID-DAY; August 1, 2020)

Sushant Singh Rajput's friend, Siddharth Pithani, has claimed that he is being pressured to give a statement against Rhea Chakraborty. In an email to the Bandra police on July 28, Pithani reportedly said Rajput's family asked him questions about Chakraborty.

He claimed they questioned him about her stay at the Bandra apartment, and a senior police official related to the Rajputs asked him to issue a statement against her to the Bihar Police. The mail, which was also marked to Chakraborty, has been cited by her in her petition to the Supreme Court, seeking a transfer of the probe from Patna to Mumbai.

When mid-day reached out to Vikas Singh, legal counsel to Rajput's father Krishna Kishore Singh, he refuted the allegations of the family pressuring Pithani. "From what I know, Siddharth Pithani has decided to change sides. The family was talking to him because he was living in the [Bandra] house when it happened. Earlier, he was saying something else. He marked the copy of the mail to Rhea. Why would he mark a complaint to the accused? As far as Siddharth's credibility is concerned, it's a catch-22 situation," said Vikas.

After Singh filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Chakraborty and five others at the Rajiv Nagar police station in Patna on Tuesday, the Bihar police booked them under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 306 (abetment of suicide), among others. A day later, the actor moved the Supreme Court seeking a transfer of the Patna FIR to Mumbai. "The Bihar police have discovered so much that the Mumbai police had not even touched upon. Earlier, Rhea had said that she wanted a CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] inquiry. Now, she wants the Mumbai police to handle the probe. If she is innocent, why isn't she asking that the case be transferred to CBI?" questioned the lawyer.

Even as the case is taking an emotional toll on the family, Rajput's cousin-BJP MLA Neeraj Kumar Singh said they are in pursuit of justice. "If Rhea was emotionally attached to Sushant, why is she scared of giving her clarification to the Bihar police? Our family only wants the truth to come out, we don't want the innocent to suffer," said Neeraj.

In a recent interview, Rajput's former girlfriend Ankita Lokhande dismissed the idea of the actor battling depression. Echoing Lokhande's sentiment, Neeraj said that the past few weeks have given way to several unsubstantiated theories. "Earlier, people were saying he had a financial crisis, which turned out to be baseless. Likewise, the depression story will be proved wrong. We should leave it to the cops to investigate who was the cause of his mental stress."

Chakraborty, in a video statement last evening, said, "I have immense faith in God and the judiciary. I believe I will get justice. Even though a lot of horrible things are being said about me, I refrain from commenting on the advice of my lawyers as the matter is subjudice." Satish Maneshinde, Chakraborty's legal counsel, remained unavailable despite repeated calls.

Next Step For Bihar Police
A source from the Bihar police informs that in the coming days, the team will interrogate the cast of Rajput's last release, Dil Bechara. "Sushant was believed to be under tremendous stress during the last few weeks. So, the team wants to question the cast and crew to understand his behaviour on the set," says the source. As part of the investigation, the Bihar police have met Rajput's counsellors. "It came to light that Rhea's family members used to be present during the counselling sessions," added the source. The team will now proceed to record the statements of the doctors who performed the post-mortem. At a meeting on Friday evening, the Bihar police sought additional manpower from the Mumbai police to continue the probe. "The Bihar police has submitted an application, which has been forwarded for legal opinion," said a senior officer from the Mumbai police.

With an estimated 95 million viewers logging in to watch Sushant Singh Rajput's last offering, viewership tracking firm says response to Dil Bechara unlike anything they've seen
Mohar Basu, Uma Ramasubramanian (MID-DAY; July 27, 2020)

Albeit playfully, Sushant Singh Rajput found himself appealing to fans to purchase tickets for a previous release, Sonchiriya, if they wished to see him 'survive in Bollywood'. Unfortunately, it took his demise to assemble cinephiles for a final outpouring of love, as they whole-heartedly celebrated his swansong, the Friday release, Dil Bechara.

A whopping 95 million viewers logged on to Disney+ Hotstar within the first 24 hours of the film's release to bid adieu to the actor. The kind of traction that Mukesh Chhabra's directorial debut garnered outshone that of any other film, says Ormax Media, a viewership tracking and consulting firm.

Gautam Jain, partner at the organisation, tells mid-day that while the figures are an estimate, they could confirm that the opening was a massive one. That the makers decided to make the film available for viewing without a cost, also enabled them to achieve such a viewership. "If one wants to, comparisons could be drawn [between the viewership] of Dil Bechara, and that of [the much-acclaimed series] Game of Thrones, and this was possible even though the latter had a pre-existing viewer-base, while the film [did not]. Then again, Hotstar promoted Dil Bechara from the onset, marketing its release date and time well in advance. Viewers showed up in unison to watch it."

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh is certain that the film would have fared just as well as it did, had it released in theatres. "I would have preferred watching it on the big screen. It is beautiful, especially its ending. A good film will always find appreciation; [as it did with] films like Anand [1971], and Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se [1978], which also had similar emotional content."

Jain admits that a release of this order introduces more viewers to the streaming platform. "Not every Dil Bechara-viewer will become a [Hotstar] subscriber, but the number of people who are familiar with the platform has now increased," he adds.

mid-day reached out to Disney+ Hotstar to procure the official viewership data on the film, but did not receive a response.

Tracking A Film
* Ormax Stream Track records how often a film is being discussed across various social media platforms. It tracks a film from four weeks before its release, and continues to do so for four week after.

* Tracking involves keeping a tab on the number of times the film is mentioned, how often its songs and trailers are viewed, and how many hashtags are used.

* The system uses these measures to assign a number to it. This is called unaided recall. Before Dil Bechara, Gulabo Sitabo garnered the maximum buzz. Its unaided recall, a week before its release, was 22. That of Dil Bechara was higher, at 23.

* This difference becomes more evident when they measure the next two parameters, reach (the number of people who eventually watch the film), and appeal (those who like it). In terms of appeal, Dil Bechara stood at 82, while Gulabo Sitabo was at 66. The company says no film has got a score above 80.