‘Saw it coming’: Producer Mukesh Bhatt on Sushant’s suicide

Bollywood producer Mukesh Bhatt has revealed that he “saw it coming” when asked about actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide, adding that he was a “disturbed soul”.

Sushant was found hanging in his Mumbai home on Sunday morning. He was 34.

During a discussion on Times Now, Bhatt, who was asked about his reaction to Sushant’s death, revealed that after meeting the actor to discuss doing a movie together, the producer felt he was a “disturbed soul”. He added that something about Sushant bothered him and that he was “not connected”.

Sushant had met with Mukesh Bhatt for Aashiqui 2 and Sadak 2. Bhatt, who is the brother of director Mahesh said that he met the actor about a year and a half ago for Sadak 2 and there was “something amiss”.

“He was a very disturbed boy. He was not there, while taking to me, I felt that he was not on the same plain. There was something amiss, something wrong,” Bhatt said.

Bhatt recalled that at the start of his career, he had worked with actress Parveen Babi, who had suffered from schizophrenia, and he was worried that Sushant was “going the Parveen Babi way”.

He said that while he was not shocked about Sushant’s death, he was “depressed and hurt”. Bhatt clarified that he got to know of Sushant’s issues and that he was seeing some doctors through his friends, adding that he was not close to the actor personally.

Bhatt went on to talk about mental health issues and how treatment of mental disorders is neglected in the country. However, he also requested youngsters to not foray into the film industry if they “can’t cope with stress”.

Union minister Babul Supriyo took to Twitter to slam Bhatt for his comments on Sushant, and said that it is a shame that he “didn’t act or help him out as a fatherly figure”.

“Anguished to hear MukeshBhatt ji (otherwise a good friend of mine) saying on @TimesNow that he saw it coming for Sushant!He may not hv given him #Sadak2 #Ashique2 for professional reasons, that’s fair enough but it’s a shame that he didn’t act or help him out as a fatherly figure,” Supriyo tweeted.