Sushant Singh Rajput has left much more than just a film legacy behind. He has left memories behind. Memories of a dreamer, a wide-eyed boy from a humble family in the search of the meaning of success and happiness.

It wasn’t an easy journey for a shy young man from a middle class family preparing to be an engineer to make a gamble and drop out of college to pursue acting in Bollywood. He was told ‘money plus recognition equals happiness and success’. But in a speech delivered in 2016 at the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management in IIT Bombay, he told students that after a long time in his life he understood the true meaning of success.

To say that his demise is shocking, would be an understatement. But even with him gone, he has left his philosophy to inspire the rest. And this is his story.