In this episode of Khandaan: A Bollywood Podcast, we take on some of the most talked-about Bollywood conspiracy theories… and explain why we don’t believe them. From the long-standing narrative around *Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi, to the deeply sensitive and widely debated **Sushant Singh Rajput case, to the internet-favourite **Govinda–James Cameron story*, we break down what actually makes sense — and what doesn’t. This isn’t about blind defence or outrage. It’s about looking at how these narratives form, why they stick, and what they say about Bollywood fandom, media culture, and the internet. As always, expect strong opinions, context, and a conversation that goes beyond headlines.
[00:00:00] It's wild that we have to actually say that. Like why would Amrita even bother? I said that the picture will be a lot of you. You're just lying to me in my face and I'm just supposed to listen to this? Yeah. Hello and welcome to this episode of Khandaan- A Bollywood Podcast. I'm your host Sujoy and I'm joined by my lovely co-host Aasim. Hello. And Amrita. Hello. And today we are discussing controversies. Stuff that has kind of exploded since the internet.
[00:00:36] But these ones we don't believe in. What's the first one Aasim? So the conspiracy theory that I don't believe in is that Salman Khan destroyed Vivek Oberoi's grave. 100% agree. Yeah. And this is not me as the regular Salman Khan fan protecting Salman. This is not me. I think Salman didn't give a shit about Vivek at all.
[00:01:04] Like he didn't. I'm sure he was bothered by Vivek Oberoi dating Aishwarya and like clearly Salman was horrible to Aishwarya. So good on her to kind of escape that relationship. I just don't think Salman would have been bothered to really get into all of that with Vivek Obray and call people that he didn't cast me. I don't think he did.
[00:01:28] I think Salman has talked about this a few times where people around him assume that he's feeling a certain way and then they'll affect people around him. That might have happened. So do you think people because they are cozy with Salman would have done it by proxy thinking bhai ko bura lag ra hai so we won't cast Vivek?
[00:01:49] That might happen. But I don't believe Salman ever made a call to say destroy this man. Plus I remember there was this interview Vivek Oberoi did much I think even much earlier and I think he was interviewed on Coffee with Karan about Aditya Chopra. Had sat him down and he was like oh one day you will be a superstar but the problem is you already think you're a superstar.
[00:02:15] And I think that really showed illustrated what kind of arrogance Vivek Obray had in those few years that he really kind of like you know became like a big thing in those first few movies that he did. And he wasn't really able to follow up on that. I also feel he's been consistently working and the work that he did after that wasn't really something to you know cheer about.
[00:02:41] Like he got like Prince it's you know it's showtime that was a big thing with a big soundtrack big studio it just didn't work you know. There was a shootout movie where he was really. Lokhandwala, Vada. Shootout at Vadala. Lokhandwala yeah. Yeah he had Rakcharitra like he had a lot of movies afterwards too and they just didn't work. He also did Lucifer right. Yeah that was much later though. That was much later yeah.
[00:03:05] Yeah I think I yeah I don't know if the people around Salman who Salman could have influenced directly or indirectly. I don't think they were making the kind of movies that Vivek was interested in making. So this idea of like Salman telling his coterie to not cast Vivek. Yeah. I mean Vivek wasn't doing Sajan Nadia Arwala movies. Yes.
[00:03:32] And Salman at that time like he wasn't even doing as well as you know it wasn't until wanted after his fight with Shah Rukh and everything and like Salman was on a mission to prove everyone wrong. Like it wasn't until then that Salman actually came back. Yeah. Around the time that he and part of the reason I believe that he had such a horrible relationship with Aishwarya is because his career was basically tanking at the time.
[00:04:01] So he didn't have the kind of like pull in Bollywood I think too and also Vivek just had like an unpleasant personality. He had an unpleasant personality even when he was when he was up and coming. Yeah. And then like when he was it doesn't matter whether he was like in the right or in the wrong. He just had an unpleasant personality. He was in the far right. Yeah.
[00:04:27] Like he was just he was just like it was it was just terrible. And then years later I remember somebody doing this this article about how Vivek and his dad his dad is like Suresh Oberoi have like this victim complex and like how the Oberoi household basically runs on a victim complex because Suresh Oberoi apparently was convinced that Amitabh Bachchan destroyed his career.
[00:04:55] Which everything is falling into place in my mind right now. Like why would Amitabh Bachchan even bother? Yeah. Yeah. Same. So why would Salman even bother? I just don't see it. Yeah. Where do you stand Sujoy on that one? I would go with team bhai on this. Like definitely he didn't even bother. Like why would what's the idiom? I can't even remember. Something to do with Hathi and Chiti. You fill the gaps. Yeah. I totally believe don't believe in this conspiracy.
[00:05:24] Amrita let's go to the second one. What is the popular conspiracy that you don't believe in? Oh OK. This is controversial I suppose. But I don't believe that Sushant Singh Rajput was murdered. It's wild that we have to actually say that we don't believe it. I mean look the man had mental health issues. He was clearly going through something.
[00:05:53] It was just very obvious for about a couple of years before he passed away. And it was absolutely gross the moment he died. Terrible tragedy let's say first of all. It was a terrible tragedy. A star lost and a potential lost. And we were perhaps one of the few people out there who actually watched all his movies. Yeah. And we spoke about it. Like nobody liked Detective Bomkesh Bakshi. We had like an entire episode about like how much we loved it and stuff. I watched Drive.
[00:06:23] Yeah. Oh wow. It was shot in Israel. I still watched it. Imagine. I watched that one with what was it with Salali Khan. Kedarnath. Yeah. I watched that. I mean like I did that for Sushant you know. Taken too early yes. But mental health issues exist. And they are more than present in the creative arts. Yeah.
[00:06:53] And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he was just at a he just hit rock bottom. You know. You don't want to believe that of people that you love. And I can appreciate that he had a family that like adored him.
[00:07:18] But A they were just you know like I don't know I didn't like the way that his family behaved after. Also just the whole narrative around with all everybody being an amateur detective. Yeah. It was so gross. Right. And every like the news media kind of jumping on this and making it a whole thing. It was so gross that you couldn't even like grieve like the actual people that lost him. They couldn't even grieve properly. And this was I think at the peak of the pandemic as well. Yes.
[00:07:47] And the entire narrative that was spun around it to do like so much. It was almost like an anti-Bollywood movement against like he was against the system. And an anti-nepotism thing. Yes. And an anti-star and an anti-elitist thing. Also the drug angle. Yeah. And then Rhea Chakravarti, his like ex-girlfriend or friend at that time.
[00:08:13] Her character was assassinated on live TV by all these anchors. And she was pretty much portrayed as the drug peddler for him. And like only I think this year the CBI investigation reports came out and she was given a clean shit. And none of the media that dragged her to hell and beyond have apologized for it. And I also think that that's what happened with Rhea.
[00:08:41] Because I remember when like right after Sushant died, I remember all the online forums going to town on her. Yeah. They called her every last thing under the sun that they could think of. And it went on for months. Yeah. And then when the CBI clean shit happened and everybody sort of like was like, yeah, okay. So she didn't have anything to do with it.
[00:09:09] All of a sudden there were all these mea kalpas online where people were like, oh, I'm so sorry. Like I was like one of your fiercest detractors and I shouldn't have said those things. You know what? It's good on you that you apologized. But if you could take like maybe five minutes to like think things through instead of leading an online mob because it seems to be what everybody else is doing,
[00:09:37] then maybe you won't have anything to apologize for. So I don't believe that Sushant Singh Rajput was murdered. I think he died by suicide. And I think that is very sad. And I think it is a learning moment because there are many, many, many people in India who could do with more kindness and more understanding of mental health struggles. Amrita is the fearless Nadia of the podcast. Guns blazing.
[00:10:07] A lot of truthers will be in the comment section. We can discuss this in the most decent way. Kindness. Kindness. Or you can decide if you want to get banned from our forums. That's what we are leading with. Moving on to a conspiracy theory that I don't believe is this one's a funny one because this has become a meme of its own.
[00:10:34] But the sheer belief with which this character gives the interview about this is just unbelievable. You know, when you build your own reality, it becomes your reality. So I'm talking about the infamous Govinda interview that has been doing the rounds where he talks about he was being cast by the James Cameron. He calls him James. Not Jimmy.
[00:11:03] But he says he was being cast for Avatar. And he was like, I said, I'll see you a picture. But I don't want to go to the green paint in three years. And he gave the name also. That's also one that he says, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Avatar name I didn't have. And it's... If you did not watch the interview, it feels like we are leading a Govinda hate brigade.
[00:11:28] But this man, he has the audacity to say this on national TV. Like this is going to be on the record, right? And yeah. What the fuck? Do you really think James Cameron came to Mumbai and sat down with Govinda Ahuja? So we live in London, right? So we have gone through Brexit. It feels like that. Yeah. When people just keep telling you this is a good idea and things are going well. It's like that is like I see Govinda.
[00:11:58] It's like, you know, you're just lying to me in my face. And I'm just supposed to listen to this? Yeah. Like a whole week when IIT Mumbai released all those, you know, promotional material on Twitter that Christopher Nolan is coming to attend Mood Indigo or something. What? And everybody was like, hi, IIT Mumbai. And then Nolan's team got the news somehow and they had to release an official statement that this is all fake. Like that happened. So it's that but times a hundred.
[00:12:28] They actually asked, they finally asked Sunita Ahuja, like Govinda's wife about this. And I don't know why Sunita is everywhere all of a sudden. Like she's either super grating or else she's like super entertaining. It really depends on your, you know, ability to. I think somebody did like an edit of her but with Amisha Patel. And Amisha Patel's like, you know, I grew up very rich.
[00:12:56] So the brands were not, you know, nothing like unknown to me. When I was going to school, I was in Gucci and all that. And then they cut to Sunita being very tapuri chaf and all that. My band raki larki, band raki. And Sunita was basically like, I have no idea what Govinda's talking about. She was just like, oh, is that a bus? Let me just push.
[00:13:24] But yeah, like if you can't even get your wife, who's your ride or die for like, you know, like 40 years or whatever. You can get her too. And she literally was like, there's so many people that come to see Govinda. I have no idea who said what to him. So it could literally have been like some white guy that showed up. It literally could have been. You know what I made? I made Titanic. And like, would you like to do a movie? It was Bob Cristo that came. Tom Walter.
[00:13:53] It sounds like something, you know, bunty bubbly and selling the Taj Mahal scheme. It sounds like that. Oh, God. And on that note, we end this episode of Bollywood conspiracies we don't believe in. Drop us a comment of something that you think you don't believe in. And we'll see in the next one.