Why have the empowered women of Bollywood taken so long to stand by Rhea Chakraborty?

While Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Shibani Dandekar and many other women from Bollywood have supported Rhea Chakraborty in the Sushant Singh Rajput Death case…

Women empowerment has been a misunderstood term for the Indian diaspora, yes, a strong-headed woman speaking her mind in this country is always looked down upon. Not just this, but if a man she is close to passes away under mysterious circumstances not only do we point fingers at her, but we also put her in the criminal’s spot. That is exactly what is also happening with actress Rhea Chakraborty with all the media trials and the witch hunt going on around the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. And while the actress has been on the receiving end of a lot of hatred, something rather unpleasant happened with the actress during one of her inquiry sessions. 

Rhea Chakraborty who has been tagged as late Sushant Singh Rajput’s murderer (by a fraction of the media) has been under constant scrutiny. And after Mumbai Police, ED, CBI, the actress is now being questioned by the Narcotics Bureau in relation to the drug angle in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. And just recently when the actress arrived for investigation session, she was badly mobbed by the media and cameramen leaving many disgusted with the behaviour she met. And it was only after this incident that many empowered women from the film fraternity came in support of the actress. 

But what is to wonder is that what took them so long to stand by Rhea? Why is it that an incident so horrendous had to take place for Rhea to receive support? The girl, whose only fault is to fall in love with a man who was broken from within, has been facing so much right from his death. And after the recent mob incident of Rhea, actresses Lakshmi Manchu, Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Karishma Tanna, Kamya Punjabi, Gauahar Khan and Shibani Dandekar have come in support of Rhea. While they slammed media’s behaviour towards Rhea, some even pointed out at how other proven criminals have been treated in a better way. Check out their tweets here:

What has been appalling is to see how the media has become a court of justice giving any verdict against the actress.  Rhea has been accused of what not from drugging the late Sushant Singh Rajput to syphoning money from his accounts, she has been shamed at so many levels and when she spoke up then too she was slammed. Her privacy has been invaded, and also those related to her have also been shammed. While the media has taken this girl with no strong connections in Bollywood for granted, it has been saddening to see no one from the fraternity coming to help her until an incident this terrible happened. Is Rhea guilty or not is something that has not been proven yet, then why are we treating the girl like a criminal, hasn’t she lost the love of her life? Haven’t her dreams shattered? Like many celebs have said, rather than stamping Rhea as a criminal, we should let the authorities do their job and not jump to conclusions. 

Written by Nawaz Kochra (Entertainment Journalist, Mumbai)