Bollywood / Knew I won't forget seeing Sushant like that: Ankita on missing funeral

Bollywood Desk: Late actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s ex-girlfriend, actor Ankita Lokhande, said that she decided not to attend his funeral as she could ‘never forget’ it if she saw him like that. Sushant’s last rites were performed at the Pawan Hans crematorium in Mumbai on June 15, a day after his death by suicide.

In an interview with Republic TV, Ankita said that she was woken up by the phone call of a journalist, who informed her about Sushant’s death. “I was sleeping and I just got up with some reporter’s call. Usually, I don’t take unknown numbers. I picked up the call and this reporter said, ‘Ankita, Sushant has committed suicide!’ And I was finished. It was something that...you don’t expect something like this,” she said.

Ankita said that she immediately turned on the news and saw story after story on Sushant’s death. “I didn’t know what to do. I was just there. The next day, there was his funeral and I couldn’t make it because somewhere I knew that if I see Sushant somewhere like that, in that position, that stage… I have my whole life to live and I will never be able to forget that phase. So I decided that I cannot go to the funeral,” she said.

However, Ankita decided to meet Sushant’s father KK Singh and his sisters, whom she was in touch with even after their break-up. “Apart from that, I had to meet his family. I wanted to make sure that they are okay. Jo jaana tha woh chala gaya but uske papa the, behne thi (He was gone but his father and sisters were there), and that was my duty to go and meet them. So I went and met them, and they were in a very bad condition. That’s it, that’s how I got to know,” she said.

Sushant and Ankita fell in love while working together on their show Pavitra Rishta, which he later quit to pursue a career in films. The two dated for six years before calling it quits in 2016.

Ankita has gone on record to say that the Sushant she knew was a cheerful person and could not have been depressed or die by suicide. However, she admitted that she was not in touch with him in the last four years, after their break-up. He was in a relationship with actor Rhea Chakraborty at the time of his death.

Sushant’s father, meanwhile, has filed an FIR with the Bihar Police against Rhea and her family for alleged abetment to suicide. Rhea and her family have been accused of misappropriating Sushant’s funds and cutting him off from his own family, among other things.

Meanwhile, Rhea recently released a video, in which she said that the truth will prevail. “I have immense faith in God and the judiciary. I believe that I will get justice. Even though a lot of horrible things are being said about me on the electronic media, I refrain from commenting on the advice of my lawyers as the matter is sub-judice. Satyameva jayate, the truth shall prevail,” she said.