Mumbai, India – Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead of apparent suicide at his Mumbai residence on June 14. What was a tragic end to a young star’s promising career has turned into a media frenzy centered on the 34-year-old actor’s girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty.
Since then, the case has attracted central investigative agencies as well as officials from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and has even become a topic of political conversation for the upcoming elections in the state of Bihar, the state. of Rajput origin..
Chakraborty was arrested earlier this month, while prominent Bollywood personalities, including Deepika Padukone, have been questioned in a growing drug investigation.
The police announced that the Rajput was a case of accidental death and the post-mortem and viscera reports to which the media had access ruled out a dirty act.
We see a lot of male actors charged with crimes, but I haven’t seen a more ugly trial before a guilty verdict.
But the Rajput family has accused Chakraborty, the actor’s partner, of complicity in suicide, robbery, cheating, conspiracy and unjust confinement.
The Enforcement Directorate, in examining the money laundering allegations against Chakraborty, has not found large transactions from the deceased actor’s account to the defendant’s account. The Central Bureau of Investigation has not held a press conference to reveal its findings.
But Chakraborty has been the target of a smear campaign by the media, including social media, where “justice for Sushant” has been trending multiple times in recent months, activists say.
The death of Sushant Singh Rajput has paralyzed India [File: Joe Penney/Reuters]Moral judgments
The actress and her brother remain in judicial custody under the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act, for allegedly acquiring 59 grams of cannabis for Rajputs. The NCB claims that Chakraborty is part of a “drug union.”
The unprecedented investigation and media coverage is a haunting reminder of how women in Bollywood face harsher moral judgments than their male counterparts, lawyers and activists said.
Nandita Rao, a lawyer and activist for the Delhi High Court, said the charges against the actor are not consistent with the evidence.
“Marijuana is a ‘conventional’ drug. The amount is so small. To be a drug dealer, you have to get commercial amounts and there has to be someone besides your boyfriend to whom you have to sell it, ”Rao told Al Jazeera.
Public scrutiny in such cases is based on the ‘Raja Beta’ syndrome: the child cannot be wrong.
The NCB is now investigating an alleged drug nexus in Bollywood and has called in more female actors for questioning based on WhatsApp conversations that were also shown on news channels, raising privacy concerns.
Al Jazeera attempted to contact OCN officials, but had received no response at the time of publication.
Rao said the media trial appears to be politically orchestrated.
The case turned into a media frenzy that has focused on the actor’s 34-year-old girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty. [Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters]
“It started as an agenda against second and third generation Bollywood producers and actors. When the Rajput died by suicide, the narrative was that he was driven to do so by nepotism in the film industry, ”he told Al Jazeera.
“[But later,] When the Bihar elections took center stage, the same people began shouting from the rooftops that his girlfriend was mistreating him and that she was stealing his money and leaving him. Some even said that he did not have a mental illness and that she had drugged him.
“All the accusations objectively wrong. Murder and instigation to suicide are contradictory charges. Then it took a misogynistic spiral, ”Rao said.
Earlier this month, the cultural cell of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unveiled posters with a photograph of Rajput with the message “na bhule hai, na bhulne denge (we have not forgotten and will not forget).” Critics say the BJP has tried to profit politically from the Rajput’s death.
24/7 media coverage
Noted filmmaker Hansal Mehta said the case looks like a diversionary tactic. “The real problems have gone into the background: a migration crisis, floods, the pandemic, the GDP plummeting, the confrontation between India and China, etc.”
The 24-hour media coverage of the case has overcome the coronavirus crisis and the border crisis between India and China, with television networks registering a record audience.
Counseling psychologist Revati Deshpande attributes the public’s frenzy of speculation to her learned worldview.
“There is a strongly sexist scheme that Rhea [Chakraborty] fits in. Historically, women have been seen as having a purpose for men; common examples are media tropes like the manic pixie dream girl or the demanding and abrasive wife, ”Deshpande told Al Jazeera.
“A woman is supposed to cure a man’s depression and it is the meaning of his life or, conversely, it ruins his full potential.”
The infantilization of the Indian male masquerades as the purity of his nature.
When Chakraborty presented her version in an interview with a news channel, people on social media questioned her “audacity” and judged her for “moving on too soon.” Columnist Shobhaa De even wrote an article about “the lack of a tic on her face” and her outfit of “sati-savitri” (a loyal and devoted wife) during the interview.
Naomi Datta, a former television journalist and media commentator, weighed in on the “righteous anger reserved for the bride.”
“Thanks to the pandemic ending all recreation, the news channels have intervened with their version of soap operas. We casually talk about girls that ‘phasao’ [hooked] a good catch [a young man with prospects]. The infantilization of the Indian man masquerades as the purity of his nature, ”Datta told Al Jazeera.
“A channel bombarded us with a video where both Sushant and Rhea are smoking, we don’t know what, but the headline is ‘Rhea Exposed.’ For smoking? And isn’t she smoking too? she asked.
When Rajput therapist Susan Walker revealed to lead journalist Barkha Dutt that she had bipolar disorder and that Chakraborty was her “strongest supporter,” social media users criticized her for violating client-patient confidentiality.
“Women are perceived to have a higher emotional quotient and therefore also have to endure a man’s mental health work,” Deshpande said.
Women in Bollywood
This is not the first time that Bollywood actresses have been subjected to different moral criteria for their romantic relationships or public conduct.
In the 1990s, Bollywood actress Rekha was charged with the suicide death of her husband Mukesh Aggarwal.
Magazines like Showtime and Cine Blitz called her “The Black Widow.”
Yasser Usman, author of the unofficial biography, Rekha: The Untold Story, said that people, including her mother, believed that Rekha killed her husband.
“Rekha did not claim ownership of Aggarwal. There was no case against her, but her mother-in-law’s words had ended: ‘Woh Daayan Mere Bete Ko Kha Gayi’ [The witch gobbled up my son]. Public scrutiny in such cases is based on the ‘Raja Beta’ syndrome: the son cannot do anything wrong, “Usman told Al Jazeera.
“This life-changing defamation turned her into a recluse and silenced her.
“[Bollywood actor] Sanjay Dutt was honest about his addiction from the beginning. He was never portrayed as a villain for that, but for the gun case. People were compassionate towards him and blamed his drug addiction on his mother’s long battle with cancer or his volatile love life, ”said Usman, who is also the author of Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Bad Boy Story from Bollywood.
He said Bollywood is being portrayed as “a den of vices where only women use drugs.”
In 2013, actor Sooraj Pancholi was charged based on a suicide note left by his ex-girlfriend Jiah Khan. When he was released on bail, the media reported that: “The prosecution had been on a witch hunt against Pancholi because of his celebrity status.”
Deepika Padukone was questioned over the weekend in a growing drug investigation [Niharika Kulkarni/Reuters] (Reuters)
The court also stated, “Jiah and Sooraj were in a cohabitation relationship of will. It cannot be said that the deceased had no choice but to commit suicide ”. Rajput did not leave a suicide note, but that did not deter the media from speculating about Chakraborty’s role in the actor’s death.
Karishma Upadhyay, film journalist and author of the biography, Parveen Babi: A Life, recounts how the film industry learned of the popular actress’s mental breakdown in 1979.
Some movies were kept on hold for a few months. Mental health was so stigmatized that his manager initially said he had jaundice.
“People refused to believe that someone as beautiful and successful as her could have been struggling with mental health problems,” Upadhyay told Al Jazeera.
“Even today, the public and much of the media are willing to believe that a woman has practiced black magic on a man than to believe that he suffered from mental health problems that a large number of doctors have confirmed.”
Actor Tapsee Pannu laments that it may take a few more lives to make things fair for women.
“We see a lot of male actors charged with crimes, but I haven’t seen a more ugly trial before a guilty verdict, even with three agencies on the case,” said Pannu, who is known for critically acclaimed films like Pink. , Thappad (Slap). and Mulk (Country).
“A certain section of the media and society were so interested in seeing it [Chakraborty] behind bars who forgot she had been arrested on charges unrelated to the main investigation. “
