Sushant Singh Rajput: the engineer who became one of Bollywood’s brightest talents

Few Indian actors have travelled as unusual a path to stardom as Sushant Singh Rajput. He was a science student who loved physics and astronomy, a background dancer, a television heartthrob and finally a leading man in Hindi cinema. This article looks back at his life and his work.

A science student from Patna

Sushant Singh Rajput was born in Patna, Bihar, on 21 January 1986, the youngest of five children. He was a bright student who won a national physics olympiad and secured a place to study mechanical engineering at the Delhi College of Engineering.

In Delhi he began attending Shiamak Davar’s dance classes and Barry John’s acting workshops. Performing gradually took over from engineering, and in 2006, in the final year of his course, he left college to try his luck in Mumbai — a decision many of his friends found surprising.

Learning the craft

In Mumbai he joined Nadira Babbar’s theatre group, Ekjute, and worked as a background dancer at award shows and events. His first television role came in Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil (2008), and in 2009 he was cast as the lead, Manav, in Ekta Kapoor’s Pavitra Rishta. The show was a major success, and the gentle, dependable Manav made him one of the most popular faces on Indian television. He was also runner-up on the dance show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa.

The leap to films

In 2011 he left a secure television career for films — a risky move at the time. Director Abhishek Kapoor cast him in Kai Po Che! (2013), based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life. As Ishaan, a passionate cricket coach in Ahmedabad, he won wide praise and several best debut awards.

He followed it with the romantic comedy Shuddh Desi Romance (2013), a small role in PK (2014), and Dibakar Banerjee’s period thriller Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015), in which he played Bengal’s famous fictional detective.

Becoming Dhoni

His biggest commercial success came with M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), directed by Neeraj Pandey. To play MS Dhoni, he spent months training with former India wicketkeeper Kiran More and practised the cricketer’s signature helicopter shot. The film was one of the biggest hits of the year, and his performance won him a Screen Award for Best Actor (Critics) and his first Filmfare nomination for Best Actor.

Range and risk

Rather than stick to one type of role, he chose varied projects. Kedarnath (2018) was a love story set against the 2013 Uttarakhand floods; Abhishek Chaubey’s Sonchiriya (2019) was a gritty drama about dacoits in the Chambal valley that critics admired. Nitesh Tiwari’s Chhichhore (2019), about college friends and the pressure of exams, became a box-office hit and later won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Its message — that failure is not the end — resonated strongly with students.

His final film, Dil Bechara (2020), an adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars, was released on streaming in July 2020, after his death, and drew a very large audience.

Beyond the screen

Off screen, Rajput was known for his curiosity. He owned a powerful telescope, posted about astronomy and books, and visited NASA in 2017 while preparing for a space film that was never made. He also supported charitable causes, including relief work after the 2018 Kerala floods.

Remembering his work

Sushant Singh Rajput died in Mumbai on 14 June 2020, aged 34. In a career of just over a decade, he moved from television to some of the most interesting Hindi films of his time. For many viewers, he will be remembered for the warmth of Manav in Pavitra Rishta, the determination of his Dhoni and the hopeful message of Chhichhore.