A recent news article called out ‘toxic Bihari families’ for putting undue pressure on their male children and Vishal Kriti, Sushant Singh Rajput’s brother in law took to social media to respond to it. He said it’s affected not only his ‘loved ones but people from Bihar in general’. The article commented on family dynamics in ‘cow-belt India’ and how the son is expected to be a ‘Shravan Kumar’, ie, an ideal child. “I wanted to let it go since, despite the tragedy in the family, I have to work just like many of Sushant’s other family members and after a long work-week, I was reluctant about addressing these issues,” Vishal Kirti wrote in a blog post. “But decided otherwise since I found out that this was affecting not only my loved ones but people from Bihar in general.” He continued, “I am from Bihar as well and my parents don’t have any toxic attitude towards my wife, who was also my girlfriend for nearly four years before I got married and we have been married for thirteen years.”

Defending a recent Instagram post by his wife Shweta, Sushant’s sister, in which she’d shared an image of the actor’s white board, on which he had mapped out future plans, Vishal wrote that Shweta didn’t say that Sushant wasn’t depressed. “Planning ahead is a very positive sign of hopefulness. Though it does not guarantee, it still questions the prerequisite condition of hopelessness,”He also dismissed the contention that Bihari families can’t stand girlfriends. “Many people know that Sushant dated Ankita (Lokhande) for at least six years and they lived together for a good portion of that relationship. People have seen great pictures of Ankita and Sushant’s family together and almost everyone knows that some members of Sushant’s family, including my wife, are in constant touch with Ankita,” he wrote.