To provide fodder to the growing curiosity among the people about the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, a number of books have mushroomed in the market over the past couple of months since his death.
The 34-year-old actor was found dead in his Mumbai residence on June 14. The books released soon after his death are available in hard copy as well as e-book format. With Sushant being in the headlines currently, people in general are curious to know more about the late actor.
On cue, the books available in the market talk of the kind of the person he was, his thoughts, goals and ambitions, his personal life, professional life, struggles, heartbreaks, failures and success, and more.
Most of these books are rush jobs, poorly research and with not much ground-breaking information since the case is still to be solved. In many cases, the author admits to have never met Sushant!
One such book is titled "The Legend Sushant Singh Rajput: The Heist Of National Treasure" written by Delhi-based author Pradeep Sharma, whose pen name is Willking. This is Sharma's first book, published on July 16. The author claims he did not know Sushant personally, but felt intrigued enough to write a book on him after the actor's death.
"I didn't know SSR personally, nor did I ever meet him. But, when I heard about the news of his death, I was not able to accept it and faced severe anxiety, and I thought I would write a blog or an article and post it on social media. But later it occurred to me that I can write a book on him, as a tribute," Sharma told IANS.
"This book is all about how I feel after his death as a die-hard fan, and how he inspires me. You will find in the book, his achievements, passion, lust to explore new things, his dreams and how he wanted to help others. In short, this is a tribute to SSR," the author claimed.
Sharma admitted he has faced widespread criticism that he is "trying to mint money and get fame overnight".
Is it a good strategy to release books about the late actor right now, even though the case is yet to be solved?
"Sushant's untimely death has affected people from all walks of life. Right now, everybody is shocked. So naturally people are curious to know more about him. However, writing books on him at this point of time, I feel, is a temporary trend aimed at grabbing the limelight quickly. This kind of literature is short-lived and doesn't have a long term impact," explains Tridib Chatterjee, President of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, Kolkata, who has been into the business of book publishing for over 40 years.
A book written in Hindi by Harsh Vardhan Chouhan is titled "Sushant Singh Rajput: Mystery". That there can be doubt about the credibility of the work is obvious from the spelling and grammatical gaffes in the book description on an online shopping site: "This book is about mistry of Sushant Singh Rajput and we solve mistry." The claims of solving the �murder' mystery seems a tad tall considering the book was published on July 29, just above a month after Sushant died.
Khushal Chawla has penned a book titled "Sushant's Depression Story: Possible Reasons Behind Sushant's Depression". The author describes it as "a short book that tells you stories on Sushant's depression. I write this book because I feel that his depression story needs to be told to the world. The book has an important message at the end which I feel will change the way people see Indian cinema." However, Chawla cannot substantiate how he can be so sure the death was caused by suicide.
Ishan Martin has gone with the Mumbai Police theory in deciphering the death, while writing "RIP Sushant Singh Rajput: The Life Of Bollywood Actor SSR".
The description of Martin's book mentions: "The news of Sushant Singh Rajput's sudden demise comes as a shock for the entire film industry and his fans. The news comes just a few days after Sushant Singh Rajput's former manager Disha Salian passed away. The news has left the actor's fans heartbroken. Sushant Singh Rajput Bollywood Actor has killed himself in his home. His body was found at his Bandra home. Mumbai police confirmed it..."
Funnily, perhaps because most of these books were in a competition to hit the market first, all the works conveniently go with the initial police deduction that Sushant committed suicide.
Parikshita Garud describes her book, "Remembering: Sushant Singh Rajput", saying: "This book is related to the legend Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. I am going to publish some important point of his life in series. This is the first series where I have introduced about Sushant Singh Rajput and depression. Nowadays depression and suicide are most sensitive topics. I'm just trying to motivate people out there with the help of the remembering Sushant Singh Rajput."
Currently, the death of the actor is being investigated by the CBI, as per the Supreme Court's order. While fans wait with bated breath for answers to the yet unsolved mysteries surrounding his death, be sure there will be more books on Sushant coming up. Let's hope those works are better researched.
