Melancholy, sorrow, discouragement, pessimism and many other words which are synonymous to “Depression” is what comes up when one searches for it on Google. I am awestruck about how depression has become commonly accepted as a trend of mental illness. Treated as the most casual form of anxiety, tension, stress, mood swings or even emotional imbalance in life, depression is stringed with the general representation of the temperamental state of the human mind when actually it is a form of serious mental illness taking a toll over millions of lives and leading people into suicidal thoughts and in some cases suicide itself.
We often connect mental stability and mental sanity with fame, name and money. And our usual dialogue is, “Itna naam aur paise hai iske paas, yeh kaise depress ho nahi ho sakta hai.” We don’t even realise that it is wrong to build connections between mental illness and physical appearance. As Shakespeare said in The Merchant of Venice, “So may the outward shows be least themselves.”
The curse of suicide has haunted the showbiz in the Indian Cinema and from Guru Dutt to Sushant Singh Rajput, we have lost some of our most favourite stars.
Here are some people who lost themselves to Depression:
- Guru Dutt : Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone (Guru Dutt) was an Indian film director, producer and actor, born in 1925 was known for his black and white classics during the 1950s and 60s like “Kagaz Ke Phool”, “Baazi” and many more. He is said to have been found dead on the bed of his rented apartment on October 10, 1964. He was said to have been mixing sleeping pills with alcohol and his death is a mystery struck between suicide and accident.
- Vijaylakshmi : Known as Silk Smitha in Tamil Cinema and said to be the iconic sex symbol, died in 1996 at the age of 33. She is claimed to have committed suicide because of extreme depression over a debt accumulated from producing movies.
- Monal Naval : Tamil actor Monal Naval who appeared in notable productions such as “Badri”died at the age of 21 due to depression caused by her break up with choreographer Prasanna Sujit.
- Santosh Jogi : The villain in “Mayavi”, Santosh Jogi, the Malyalam film actor committed suicide on April 13, 2010. According to the police, Jogi’s suicide was due to family problems that caused him depression.
- Jiah Khan : British- American actor Jiah Khan, who made her debut in Bollywood in Ram Gopal Verma’s “Nishabd” and then a notable performance in “Ghajini”, committed suicide on June 3, 2013. Sooraj Pancholi was charged with abetting Jiah’s suicide in 2018 by a court in Mumbai.
- Sai Prashanth : Tamil actor Sai Prashanth, starred in movies, “Mundhinam Paartheny”, “Vadacurry”, was found dead at his residence on March 13, 2016. He committed suicide by mixing poison with drinks and is suggested to have been lonely and depressed.
- Kushal Punjabi : Kushal Punjabi, the winner of “Zor ka Jhatka”, a TV Reality show was suffering from depression. He was found dead on December 26, 2019, in his residence. He started his career as a dancer and model and acted in movies like “Salaam-e-Ishq”, “Kaal”.
- Preksha Mehta : Crime Patrol actress Preksha Mehta committed suicide recently on May 26, 2020. She was suffering from depression and expressed her disappointments regarding her career and failed relationships in her suicide note.
