Actor Sushant Singh Rajput, popular as Manav from Pavitra Rishta and Mahendra Singh Dhoni
from M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story,
began his acting career from Hindi television serials after quitting his
engineering course at the Delhi College of Engineering due to lack of interest in the course. With
a career spanning over 12 years in the entertainment industry, Rajput is the
recipient of a screen award for his contribution to the film industry.

Born on January 21, 1986 in Bihar’s Patna, he was one of the finest actors in Hindi cinema. He made his debut in Kis Desh Mein Hai Meraa Dil, a romantic television drama in 2008, followed by the lead role in the daily soap Pavitra Rishta (2009-2011) alongside his former girlfriend, Ankita Lokhande, which marked his presence in the Indian
household as Manav. The actor then progressed towards Bollywood and featured in
his first debut film Kai Po Che in
2013, an adaptation of Chetan Bhaghat’s novel, ‘The 3 Mistakes of My Life’ alongside Rajkummar Rao and Amit Sadh.

His first film became a commercial
and critical success and Rajput’s bright journey took off. The actor even got nominated for the Filmfare awards in the category of best debut actor for his performance in the film.

Rajput soon grabbed the lead role in the romantic
comedy, Shuddh Desi Romance in 2013. He also played the protagonist in the action thriller Detective Byomkesh Bakshy in 2015. He
then experimented with the reincarnation drama Raabta in 2017 and the historical film Sonchiriya in 2019. The actor also featured in the Dharma Production’s
action-thriller Drive in 2019.

Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput death case: Bombay HC says media trial impacts investigation 

However, his first highest
grossing release came with a supporting role in the religious satire PK in 2014 and another from the breakthrough performance in the Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s biopic M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, in 2016, the latter of which earned him the first ever
nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor and became the winning
nomination at the India Film Festival of Melbourne. 

The biopic’s popularity
was so widespread that during his cameo role in the comedy film Welcome to New York, in 2018, the lead characters
of the film mistook him for real Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Soon after Dhoni’s biopic, Rajput became one of the most prolific actors in the Hindi film
industry and then he did not look back.

He delivered some outstanding
roles of Mansoor in the film Kedarnath
alongside newbie Sara Ali Khan and Anirudh Pathak in Chhichhore alongside Shraddha Kapoor. Audiences absolutely loved
his performances in both the films while the latter earned over Rs 100 crore on
the box office.

Also read: IFFI to screen Irrfan Khan, Sushant Singh Rajput, Chadwick Boseman films as a tribute

Chhichhore proved to be his last film. Rajput died by
suicide at his home in Bandra, Mumbai on June 14, 2020 while his last-starred film,
Dil Bechara was release post his
death on an OTT platform.

In this film, the actor played the role of a fun-loving man Immanuel
Rajkumar Junior aka Manny, who inspired Kizie Basu played by Sanjana Sanghi
to live the rest of her life before cancer, happily.

The film was a remake of
Hollywood film The Fault in Our Stars and
based in the novel of the same name by author John Green. When released, it proved
to be a record breaker in its first 24 hours viewership and garnered
approximately 95 million viewers.

Also read: ‘I had the game wrong’: Sushant Singh Rajput in handwritten-note

The actor also featured
with his Raabta co-star Kriti Sanon in a T-series music video of the song
named, Paas Aao in 2017, composed by
the brothers duo Armaan and Amaal Mallik.

Veteran actor Shekhar
Kapoor referred Rajput as “one
of the most inspiring young actors to emerge out of India” and was also
called as the “next SRK”, of which Rajput himself was a huge fan.