The witch hunt and fall of Rhea Chakraborty

The arrest of Rhea Chakraborty brings to a close to the worst witch hunt that I've ever come across in modern times. It was very simple, really. If you can't nail her for Sushant's death then pin her down for something else. But she had to go in. Someone had to pay for Sushant Singh Rajput's death.

A very prominent filmmaker while discussing the current unsavoury salacious back-and-forth on Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, observed that Rhea Chakraborty’s career is over.

“Not that it ever started,” he added, not intending it as a cruel barb. Nothing that can be said about Rhea at this moment can be crueler than what destiny has doled out for her. A career that never started, and a love relationship that came to a deadend. Quite literally.

It couldn’t get worse for a starry-eyed girl from Kolkata who came to Mumbai with the intention of becoming the next Sharmila Tagore.

A director who has worked with her remembers her as a fun-filled super-ambitious ball of energy. “She was all over the place. Everyone liked her on the set. She liked to be liked. She was pretty and determined to be a big star. I thought she would go far.”

Very soon it became apparent that Rhea’s career was not going anywhere. She started with a Telugu films .But got no more offers from that industry.

“Somehow something was not quite right about that girl,” a Telugu superstar’s wife recalls telling her husband to steer clear of ‘Madame Random Stardom’…whatever that means.

Her Hindi debut was a Yash Raj film. No less. But Mere Dad Ki Maruti featured Rhea neither as Dad nor Maruti. Just the pretty prop. Likewise in Bank Chor, arguably the worst film Yash Raj has ever produced. It was to feature Kapil Sharma in the male lead. But apparently he wanted Deepika Padukone as his co-star. Apparently no one wanted Rhea Chakraborty except Sushant Sungh Rajput.

Rhea was stuck in the middle of a non-starting career.

Luckily Mukesh Bhatt “found” her and cast her in a pivotal role in Jalebi in 2018. This was meant to be her grand launch.

Says a source very close to the Bhatts, “Mahesh Bhatt really believed she was star material. He mentored Rhea, launched her in style in Jalebi. But when the film bombed Rhea was shattered, her future seemed uncertain.”

This is when she met Sushant Singh Rajput. A successful stylish affluent and powerful superstar. The two soon became a couple. Sushant began recommending Rhea as his leading lady.

A filmmaker who had offered Sushant the lead in his film was shocked when he requested Rhea as the female lead. “I didn’t think it was his place to recommend any heroine. He wasn’t Salman Khan that a producer would quietly sign Katrina Kaif.”

Not that Rhea was anywhere close to Katrina. A bottlenecked career with no hope for a future Rhea today is what she always wanted to be.

Famous. Though not in the way she had dreamt of being.