Amongst celebrities why do only cine stars commit suicide and not cricketers or politicians?
The death of Jiah Khan, the film actress, reopens the debate on cine star celebrity deaths. Why do so many suicides occur in the film Industry? Despite similar failure rates, there are no suicides in politics or in cricket.
Dr KK Aggarwal, President Heart Care Foundation of India and National Vice President-Elect IMA says that in cricket, we see cricketers under stress, they even lose their place in the team for years and yet they do not go into depression. The reasons may be the presence of a counselor in every team and opportunities to play in domestic games. Amongst politicians also, a large number of them have died of unnatural deaths but there are no suicides.
In the film industry, we have seen cases of Raj Kiran and Parveen Babi (56) who were reported missing for years and nobody bothered. The same never happens in cricket. Parveen Babi was later found dead in her flat.
In the past, eight cine celebrities have committed suicides. These include Guru Dutt (39), Divya Bharti (19), Nafisa Joseph (26), Kuljeet Randhwa (30), Kunal Singh (31), Silk Smitha (35), Viveka Babajee (37) and now Jiah Khan (25).
So is celebrity status a risk factor for suicide?
Suicides are also common in medical profession but not in nursing profession. They are hardly seen in cricketing celebrities.
Lifestyle disorders, including heart attack, diabetes, paralysis, liver disease, kidney disease and cancer are still the commonest causes of death amongst celebrities.
• KL Sehgal (42), Geeta Dutt (41) and Meena Kumari (39) died of alcohol-related liver diseases.
• 12 celebrities died of cancer: Nazia Hassan 35 (lung cancer), Nargis 51 and Jatin Kanakia 46 (cancer pancreas), Jennifer Kapoor 51, Nutan 54, Rehman 58 (throat cancer), Rajender Kumar 69, Firoze Khan 69, Prithvi Raj Kapoor 70, Mac Mohan 72 (lung cancer), Shamim Desai (stomach cancer), Sujit Kumar 75.
• Both Jagjeet Singh 70 and Amrish Puri 72 died of brain hemorrhage.
• Actors who died because of heart disease: Madhubala 36 (hole in the heart), Bob Cristo 72 (rupture of heart); heart attack: Simple Kapadia 51, Mohd. Rafi 55, Mohan Gokhale 45, Sanjeev Kumar 47, Vivek Shauq 47, Shafi Inamdar 47, Nirmal Pandey 48, Amjad Khan 51, Mukesh 53, RD Burman 54, Kishore Kumar 58, Ravi Baswani 63, Prem Nath 65, Naveen Nishchol 65, Hemant Kumar 69, Suchitra Mitra 86, Dev Anand 88, MF Hussain 85, Vinod Mehra 45, Sunil Dutt 75, Abir Goswami 37, Surinder Kapoor 85, Praveen Babi 55 (diabetes and heart disease) and Rituparno Ghosh 50.
• Mazhar Khan 45 and Shammi Kapoor 79 died due to kidney failure.
• Only three died of infections: Geeta Bali 36 due to small pox, Bhimsen Joshi 89 and Jagmohan Mundra 62 due to pneumonia.
• Only two celebrities were murdered: Gulshan Kumar 41 and Priya Rajvansh 63.
• There was only one pregnancy-related death: Smita Patil 31.
• Two died of prolonged illness: Mani Kaul 66 and Goga Kapoor 70.
• One died of multi organ failure: Bhupen Hazarika 85.
Out of 61 celebrity deaths collected so far, 25 died of heart disease, 12 died of cancer, 3 died of liver disease, 2 of brain attack, 2 with prolonged illness, one pregnancy-related, 3 infections, 8 suicides, 2, kidney failures, 2 murders and one multiorgan failure.
On the other hand, amongst politicians a large number of them have died of unnatural deaths but there are no suicides. The number one cause of death however remains heart attacks or lifestyle illnesses.
Politicians who have died in air crashes include Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose (alleged to have died in a plane crash), Homi J. Bhaba, S. Mohan Kumar Mangalam, Sanjay Gandhi, Ashok Birla, Surendra Nath, Madhav Rao Scindia, GMC Balyogi, OP Jindal, YSR Reddy and Dorjee Khandu. Three died in road accidents, Rajesh Pilot, Sahib Singh Verma and Giani Zail Singh.
Eleven politicians who have died of a heart attack are Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru 74, Dr Zakir Hussain 72, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed 71, Lal Bahadur Shastri 61, Krishna Kant 75, Dr. BC Roy 80, Dayanand Bandodkar 62, G Ramachandran 70, Sarojini Naidu 70, PV Narsimha Rao 83 and Arjun Singh 80.
Most cine celebrities died of heart attack before the age of 50 and none of the politicians died of heart attack before the age of 50.
Many politicians were assassinated: Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, LN Mishra, Mahatma Gandhi, Beant Singh, Phoolan Devi and Abdul Gani Lone.
Only two politicians died of cancer: VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar (blood cancer)
One politician died of surgical complications: Sikandar Bakht and one died of multi organ disease: S. Venkataraman.
India Post News Service
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