Actress
Jiah Khan dies
The
death of Jiah Khan, the film actress, reopens up 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.
In
cricket, we see cricketers under stress, they even lose their place in the team
for years and yet they do not go in depression. The reasons may be the presence
of a counselor in every team and opportunities to play in domestic games.
Will
the film industry come out with guidelines for suicide and stress prevention?
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, many (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 Chander Bose (alleged to
have died in a plane crash), Homi J. Bhaba, S. Mohan Kr. 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,
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: Shri VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar (blood
cancer)
One
politician died of surgical complications: Sikandar Bakht and one died of multi
organ disease: S. Venkataraman.
No
suicidal deaths have been seen in cricketers or in politicians.
