Raveena Tandon mourned the demise of Sushant Singh Rajput. (Photo: Instagram/raveenatandon; Instagram/sushantsinghrajput)

Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death by suicide has evoked several accounts of struggle in the Hindi film industry. Raveena Tandon on Monday evening recounted her past lows — being removed from films by male stars and written about maliciously in the press — which left her broken.

Raveena, who was one of the most popular Bollywood stars in the ’90s, opened up about struggling despite being from a film family (her father Ravi Tandon was a filmmaker). “‘Mean girl’ gang of the industry. Camps do exist. Made fun of, been removed from films by heroes, their girlfriends, journo chamchas and their career destroying fake media stories. Sometimes careers are destroyed. U struggle to keep afloat. Fight back. Some survive Some don’t. #oldwoundsrevisited (sic),” the actor wrote.

The Maatr star shared that when artistes try to break silence about oppression in the industry, they are branded as liars and unhinged. “When you speak the truth, you are branded a liar, mad, psychotic. Chamcha journos write pages and pages destroying all the hard work that you might have done. Even though born in the industry, grateful for all it has given me, but dirty politics played by some can leave a sour taste,” read another tweet.

Revealing that she has been at the receiving end of industry politics, Raveena stressed that Bollywood practices ostracism against people irrespective of their surnames. “It can happen to someone born within, an ‘insider’ as I can hear insider/outsider words, some anchors blaring away. But you fight back. The more they tried to bury me, the harder I fought back. Dirty politics happen everywhere. But sometimes one roots for good to win, and evil to lose.”

Celebrities like Ranvir Shorey, Nikhil Dwivedi, Meera Chopra and Pallavi Sharda also opened up about survival in the Hindi film industry, while mourning Sushant’s demise. The actor, 34, passed away on Sunday. He suffered from clinical depression and sought counselling, according to Mumbai Police. However, he was not taking any medication.