A Short History Of Star Suicides

When Kurt Cobain put a bullet through his head at the age of 27, his band, Nirvana, was at the height of its fame.

- Palash Krishna Mehrotra

The fans said: rock ‘n’ roll killed Kurt — a reference to the pressures of big labels interfering with one’s creative process, and the trappings of commercial stardom. Cobain’s friend, Michael Stipe, the lead singer for R.E.M., offered a sober unromantic explanation: clinical depression, not an abstract entity called “rock ‘n’ roll”, led to Cobain’s death.

Conspiracy theories

In the wake of Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide, similar accusations have been swirling on social media: that Big Bollywood is responsible for his untimely demise. Sushant was an unusually bright bulb in Bollywood. He read Nietzsche and Sartre and didn’t shy away from being a thinking person. I’d think he’d be happier if one analysed his death in the context of other geniuses who’ve also taken their own lives.

When it comes to awareness of mental health, India and America are at opposite ends of the spectrum. In America, every middle class person who can afford a therapist has one. You don’t have to be mentally ‘ill’ to seek help. A therapist –different from a psychiatrist – is like a life coach; people often change therapists until they find the one who works for them. But then Americans have a tendency to go to extremes; they even put their pooches on medication.