Sushant Singh Rajput is single again!  I am sure many many people care about this news, but I am probably the only person who cares about it exclusively because of Byomkesh Bakshy!  I just really liked that movie.

A while back, in a post about all the Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara divorces, I talked about how different it is to hear about these public break-ups.  Not because people didn’t date and break-up before this.  But because they used to never publicly acknowledge a relationship until they were married, and then never ever acknowledge an issue in the marriage (unless it resulted in a second marriage, like Hema-Dharmendra, Sridevi-Boney, etc.).

But now we are in a whole new era!  Where at least some stars actually acknowledge they are dating, and even living together, without being married.  Which means they also have to come out in the open and talk about it when they break-up.

Sushant and his girlfriend Ankita Lokhande were on the fore front of this trend.  I think because they got together when they were only sort of famous from a TV show, enough so that their relationship was on the public record but not widely discussed.  I don’t watch Indian TV (stupid expensive satellite packages that I can’t afford!), but my impression is that TV stars are beloved and well-known, but their personal lives aren’t given quite the amount of 24 hour scrutiny that movie stars get.  And since they play the same characters for so long and in so many episodes, they get more identified as their fake characters than as the real people, which is a nice way of maintaining autonomy and privacy for the real people.

(1424 episodes!)

So when Sushant and Ankita started a long-term relationship, while playing a married couple on a hit show that ran for 4 seasons and 1424 episodes (wait, is that right?  1424 episodes?  Maybe I don’t want to watch Indian TV after all, I don’t know if I could handle that much quantity), the public loved it!  It felt like their characters were just carrying over to real life, and the whole “not married” thing got sort of buried.

But then Sushant started his movie career, and suddenly having an openly acknowledged long term girlfriend with whom he lived became a bit of a problem.  He turned into the poster boy for “live-in” relationships, even staring in Shudh Desi Romance, a whole movie about it.  And the pressure started turning up about when they would get married.

(Live in relationships!  All sexy fun all the time!  At least, that’s what the movies tell me)

And now they are broken up.  Good for Ankita!  Go back to being just television famous, where you are beloved, but all of India isn’t up in your business all the time!  And poor Sushant, losing his last connection to his pre-movie star life.  And poor me, because once again, just like with the Ranbir-Katrina break-up, their apartment is being referred to as a “love-nest”.  Blech!  Just call it “the apartment they shared”.

Let’s see, what other news got dumped on Friday/Saturday?  Emraan Hashmi apparently wrote a book about his 4 year old son’s fight with cancer, that’s coming out soon, and will be published in English, Hindi, and Marathi.  That’s cool!  Not sure if I want to read it, because little kids with cancer is sad.  But still cool!

(He’s so tiny!  I don’t want to read about him having chemo!)

Aamir Khan is continuing his massive weight loss, after his massive weight gain, and in typical Aamir fashion, is doing it in a socially conscious manner.  He is apparently donating all his fat clothes to charity.  I do have a small voice in the back of my head that says “But, what if he gains all the weight back later?  Don’t you always want to hold onto your fat pants, just in case?”

And Sanjay just signed his 3rd film post-jail!  Boy, that whole incarceration thing didn’t slow down his career at all!  Good news for Salman/Saif/everyone else with a court case hanging over them.  After he finishes the next Munna Bhai movie (yay!), and gets in shape enough to do the action film with Sidharth Anand (double yay!  I loved Bang Bang!), he will be in a film directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra about an estranged father and daughter, possibly inspired by Sanjay’s real life relationship with his oldest daughter, Trishala.  To which I say, yay yay yay!

(One sign of their relationship strife-there are almost no photos of them together.  Although this one is super cute)

Partly because I have always been intrigued with Sanjay and Trishala, especially now that he is starting over with the twins and being such a perfect and involved father after missing most of her childhood.  But also because VVC always does such interesting things with Sanjay.  Remember, Rajkumar Hirani may have directed Munna Bhai, but VVC was the one who decided to produce it and used his connections to get Sanjay.  Plus, although I have some issues with Mission Kashmir, Sanjay was really perfect in it.  And in Eklavya.  And even without the Sanjay part of it, VVC is just a brilliant director, and he hasn’t made a film in years, so that’s plenty reason enough to get excited!