21/07/2024
Page3 journalist Rajeev Masand finally admits he wrote articles on actor Sushant Singh Rajput which were said to be 'blind articles' that damaged his reputation and perturbed him to an extent that he felt that there was a design to remove him from the industry.
Rajeev Masand, who now works for Karan Johar's Dharma Cornerstone Agency, involved in management of celebrities,
says everybody in the Hindi film industry already knew about the stories and his 'blind items' about Sushant Singh Rajput weren’t ‘damaging, hurtful’ and they were misinterpreted.
According to those close to Sushant, it was said that one of the articles written by Rajeev Masand, who was summoned by the CBI in connection with the investigation into the case, appeared on May 31, 2020, just a couple of weeks ahead of Sushant's death.
Rajeev Masand has worked with newspapers, magazines news channels such as TV18 Network and India Today before joining Karan Johar's team.
The 'blind news articles' written during Covid lockdown in 2020 spoke about how the industry disliked Sushant and how he was over estimated. '' used to write a column which had multiple items, and one was a blind item. But were they damaging? Were they hurtful to people? I don’t think so. The idea was that it was supposed to be a puzzle that people were supposed to solve. In fact, it was information that everybody in the industry already knew. It was misrepresented, but what is not in your control, what can you do?,'' Masand said in a podcast.
Rajeev Masand says what he wrote in the 'blind article' was something that everyone knew. if So, why did he not name the actor? Why did he speculate? If he was sure about the facts and the name of the actor, he should have named him. But not naming the actor caused suspicion about the intention behind the article.
Rivalry in the industry is a common thing and for an entertainment journalist knowing this is not difficult. So Rajeev Masand would have certainly known when Sushant sent out the Tweet asking fans to watch 'Sonchiriya' because there are certain people who want to throw him out of the Industry. Rajeev should have been mindful of this and would have understood the impact of a blind article on an actor who is already apprehensive. Why did Rajeev Masand ignore all of this?
To say everybody knew is different but to be irresponsible to the extent that your article may be damaging for someone's career when you are not a party in the industry's 'I win game' is not fair for a journalist who claims to be independent.
Rajeev Masand was among the people who were questioned in connection with the death of the actor who died under suspicious circumstances on June 14, 2020. The matter is still under investigation and CBI is yet to conclude how did the actor die -- was it a homicide or su***de?
