Ankita Lokhande explains why she didn’t attend Sushant Singh Rajput’s funeral

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, August 2

Actress Ankita Lokhande finally explains why she did not attend late actor and ex-boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput's funeral. 

The actress said that if she ever saw Sushant like that she would never be able to 'forget it'.  

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 from 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 revealed 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'.

The two dated for six years before calling it quits in 2016.

Ankita has claimed 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.