Salman Khan & family sabotaged all my projects: Abhinav Singh Kashyap

Sushant Singh Rajput's demise has brought to the fore discussions about mental health and pressures of a public image on actors in Bollywood. Even as many actors slammed Bollywood fraternity for their empty condolences on Rajput's death, Anurag Kashyap’s brother and director of ‘Dabangg’ has now called out Salman Khan and his family for sabotaging his career in a hard-hitting post on Facebook.

In a post, Abhinav Singh Kashyap revealed that Salman Khan and his family sabotaged his career after 2010 film Dabangg. The filmmaker wrote: "The reason I moved out of making Dabangg 2 ten years ago is because Arbaaz Khan in collusion with Sohail Khan and family was trying to take control of my career by bullying me. Arbaaz Khan sabotaged my second project with Shree Ashtavinayak Films that I signed up with by personally calling their head Mr. Raj Mehta and threatening him with dire consequences if they made a film with me. I had to return the signing money to Shree Ashtavinayak films and moved to Viacom Pictures. They did the same thing."

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"Only this time the sabotager was Sohail Khan and he intimidated the then Viacom CEO Vikram Malhotra. My project was sabotaged and I was made to return my signing fee of Rupees 7 Crores plus interest of Ninety odd lacs. Its only then that Reliance Entertainment came to my rescue and we forged an enduring partnership for my film Besharam," he added.

"Mr. Salman Khan and family sabotaged the release of the film and got their PROs to run a sustained negative smear campaign against me and my film BESHARAM before release. This scared the distributors from buying my film," he alleged.

The actor claimed that over the next few years, all his projects and creative endeavours were disrupted and he was repeatedly threatened with life and "rape threats given to/for the female members of my family." "The sustained gaslighting and bullying destroyed my mental health and that of my family and led to my divorce and breaking up of my family in 2017," Kashyap wrote.

Also read — Wake-up call on mental health

The filmmaker appealed to the government to have a detailed investigation around Sushant Singh Rajput's death. "The death of Sushant Singh Rajput brings under scanner the role YRF talent Management Agency might have played in pushing him towards his suicide but that is for the authorities to investigate. These people don’t make careers. They ruin your career and life. Having suffered personally for a decade, I can confidently say every Talent Manager and all Talent Management Agencies of Bollywood are a potential death Trap for Artists. They are all basically white collared Dalaals and everyone is involved," he wrote.

Also read: Industry insiders expose the 'reality' of Bollywood after Sushant Singh Rajput's death

Sushant Singh Rajput died by suicide on Sunday afternoon, sending shocks to entire Bollywood fraternity. A day after he was found dead in his posh upscale rented duplex in Bandra, the last rites of actor Sushant Singh Rajput was performed on Monday.

The 34-year-old was found dead in one room of his flat - and he is suspected to have died by suicide.

The post-mortem was conducted at the Dr RN Cooper Municipal General Hospital. "The provisional post-mortem report cites asphyxia as the cause of death," zonal deputy commissioner of police Abhishek Trimukhe said.