'Theatre is the only space of solace': Mukta Agrawal opens up on sister Misha's tragic suicide

Social media influencer and entrepreneur Misha Agrawal died by suicide on April 24, just two days before her 25th birthday. The news of her death was confirmed through her official Instagram handle, and in an emotional message, her elder sister Mukta Agrawal shared about the increasing emotional burden Misha faced because of her falling follower count. Misha had studied law; her sister told her it was okay and that there was more to life than a follower count on social media. However, Misha was too "crushed," to hold herself up.

Speaking on the issue at WAVES, actress Mita Vashisht said she felt it was high time people stop immersing themselves in their phones and begin "real talks." "I feel, and I'm making a prediction. But you have to mark my words that in the coming years, theatre is the only place of solace. We are so immersed in our phones that we have no time to talk. But it is the theatre where we will all come together as one, where we will all unite and find ourselves. Theatre will be the only place where people will come back because they need to touch base with their deep inner selves. "

Having done television, film and theatre, she said that in times of ever-evolving technology, artificial intelligence and space tourism, the fact is that human vulnerability hasn't dipped; rather, it has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. "We are as emotionally, intellectually and mentally fragile as full of possibilities and greatness and vulnerabilities as we were 5,000 years ago. Even today we want and live the same things that we did so many years back," hinting that societal validation is absolutely essential for upping one's self esteem.

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who was sharing the dias with Vashisht and Swanand Kirkire, all of whom are contemporaries and NSD alumni, agreed that theatre will bring back the "lost calm and tranquility the human society should possess." The three were speaking on, 'Beyond the stage: Theatre 2.0 needs a new Act.' Somehow I have been observing lately that parents have started taking their kids to watch live theatre more than ever before. This is because when you're on social media you keep losing time but when you see something live, the recall value and the memory of it stays with you all your life," said Siddiqui. Recalling his own time back in the '90s when he watched his first few plays, he said that some scenes from those plays were still clear in his mind.

"Theatre is the father of all entertainment. You cannot experiment in cinema as much as you can in theatre - here you can be Hamlet, King Lear and everything you can imagine. Cinema is very limited in comparison. I'm sure a saturation point will come, just as it comes even in the lives of us actors when we can keep going on and on mechanically in cinema and want to touch base with theatre to keep the liveness in us going. Now people want to watch theatre more than cinema. Families are visiting plays together. Theatre will never be past. In fact, it will only bounce back with more vigour now. As humans, agreed, the panellists, we are living beings and living beings would like to watch other living beings in action on the stage more than them on screens. Human beings have always been artistically intelligent and so the real AI is within us, that is, artistic intelligence, they said, emphasisng how a loss of connection with one's reality was leading people to take their own lives, which they had handed over to their mobile phones and artificial intelligence," Siddiqui said, hinting at Agarwal's suicide.

“She (Misha) built her world around Instagram and her followers. When her followers started decreasing, she became distraught and felt worthless,” Mukta stated in her post. She further revealed that Misha had been showing signs of depression since April. “She would often hug me crying, saying, Jija, what will I do, if my followers decrease? My career will be over,” she said.

Mukta stated she pleaded with her sister to consider Instagram as just entertainment and reminded her of her academic achievements. ”I told her she would become a judge one day and didn’t need to worry about his followers,” she added.

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