Blog: Why Sushant Singh Rajput's death feels so personal

'He should be the main lead.' That is what my sister and I had said when we saw Sushant Singh Rajput in his television debut.

He was playing the role of the hero's brother. 

We could not hold back our excitement when we saw Sushant's infectious smile as he removed a dupatta from his face, in the popular TV show Pavitra Rishta's promo. 

We were both happy that he got a big break and that our prediction came true.

Sushant's career growth felt personal. We saw him evolve from the small screen to dance reality shows and eventually to Bollywood with 'Kai Po Che' (2013).

His was a remarkable journey, from a small-town boy who dropped out of one of India's best engineering colleges to find success in showbiz.

Sushant's on-screen roles reflected his real-life persona. Be it Pavitra Rishta's Manav Deshmukh- a quintessential nice guy or Kai Po Che's Ishaan- a former district-level cricketer, who wanted to establish an academy to help budding sportspersons.

One can't forget his portrayal of former Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni in Neeraj Pandey's namesake 2016 blockbuster.

It is difficult to imagine someone else essaying the role of Dhoni with such ease. After all, just like MSD, Sushant came from a small town and remained humble even after achieving success.

He got to play an engineer on the big screen in his last theatrical release 'Chhichhore' (2019).

And then one day, he was gone and his death hit us close to home. Sushant was rare. Who would have imagined an actor to have a telescope at home?

He was as passionate about astronomy as he was about acting. Sushant showed us that one did not need to leave behind their past dreams in order to pursue new ones.

He fondly remembered his life as an engineering student.

This again made him unique as many who enter a creative field from an academic one often shun their previous lives as something that they did not enjoy.

Actors frequently talk about playing relatable roles but they hardly stress on striking a chord with the people in real life.

Sushant did not have to try. He was one of us.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)