Rhea Chakraborty

Rhea Chakraborty is an Indian actress and VJ. She started her career as a VJ on MTV India. She made her acting debut with the 2012 Telugu film Tuneega Tuneega and later appeared in the Hindi film Mere Dad Ki Maruti.

Mumbai: Actress Rhea Chakraborty seen outside producer Anand Pandit’s house in Mumbai, on May 7, 2019. (Photo: IANS)

Early life

Rhea Chakraborty was born into a Bengali family in Bangalore, Karnataka, India on 1 July 1992. Her father was an Indian Army officer. She did her schooling from Army Public School Ambala Cantt, Ambala.

Career

Rhea started her television career in 2009 with MTV India’s TVS Scooty Teen Diva where she was the first runner-up. Later on, she auditioned to be a VJ at MTV Delhi and was selected. She has hosted several MTV shows, including Pepsi MTV Wassup, TicTac College Beat and MTV Gone in 60 Seconds.

In 2012, she made her film debut with the Telugu film Tuneega Tuneega where she played the character Nidhi. In 2013 she debuted in Bollywood with Mere Dad Ki Maruti as Jasleen. In 2014 she played the character of Sonali in Sonali Cable.

In 2017 she appeared in YRF’s Bank Chor. She also did cameo appearances in Half Girlfriend and Dobaara: See Your Evil. In 2018 she appeared in Jalebi opposite debutante Varun Mitra.

Rhea Chakraborty at Lakme Fashion Week 2019 on 2nd Feb 2019 shown to user

Personal life

Chakraborty met the Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput at a party in April 2019, and the couple started dating soon after. She founded an artificial intelligence company called Vividrage Rhealityx in partnership with her brother Showik Shakraborty and Rajput in September 2019. The couple moved in together in December 2019. On 14 June 2020, Rajput committed suicide at his home in Bandra, Mumbai, six days after she moved out.

Death of Sushant Singh Rajput

On 25 July, Rajput’s family lodged a first information report (FIR) with Patna Police, where his father lives, alleging Rhea, Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty, Shruti Modi, Showik Chakraborty and others of abetment of suicide, wrongful restraint, wrongful confinement, theft, criminal breach of trust, and cheating under various sections of the IPC. Rajput’s father, K.K. Singh, said in the FIR that Rajput had confided to his sister about Chakraborty threatening to make his medical receipts public and prove him mad; that Rajput was afraid Chakraborty would frame him for his secretary’s suicide; and that before his day of suicide, Chakraborty took away all doctor’s receipts. On 7 August, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned Rhea and her brother, Showik Chakraborty, over allegations of money laundering. On 19 August, the Supreme Court of India allowed the CBI to take control of the investigation. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), India’s national drug law enforcement agency, registered an FIR against Rhea, Showik, and 8 others, leading to their arrests on charges that marijuana was supplied to Rajput on orders from Rhea and Showik.

Media coverage

On 27 August 2020, BBC News reported that in the wake of Rajput’s death, Chakraborty had “found herself at the centre of a vicious hate campaign led by some of India’s most high-profile journalists and social media trolls.” Subjected to gossip, innuendo, and misogynistic abuse, she was described by conservative television hosts as a “manipulative” woman who “performed black magic” and “drove Sushant to suicide.” After a purported fan of Rajput threatened her on Instagram with rape and murder and urged her to “commit suicide otherwise I will send people to kill you,” Chakraborty sought help from the cybercrime police. Supreme Court senior counsel Meenakshi Arora told the BBC that much of the press had already declared the actress guilty. “She’s been hanged, drawn and quartered. It’s a complete trial by media.” Three activists, arguing that trial by media poses “real and substantial risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice,” petitioned the Bombay High Court to restrict reportage that could hamper the investigation of this case due to sensationalisation. News channels named as having conducted such media trials included Times Now, Republic TV, Zee News, NDTV, News 18, and India Today. On 28 August, the Press Council of India (PCI), the autonomous press watchdog established by parliament, said coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput case by many media outlets “is in violation of the norms of journalistic conduct.” The PCI advised media to not carry out a “parallel trial” by narrating the story to induce public belief in the guilt of one whom the PCI called “the person indicted.”