My heart breaks at the vilification of Rhea Chakraborty: Vidya Balan

New Delhi: Actor Vidya Balan condemned the media coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput death case and ‘vilification’ of Rhea Chakraborty,  saying it is unfortunate that the tragedy has been turned into a “media circus”.

In response to Lakshmi Manchu’s tweet slamming the media for ‘(making) a monster out of a girl’, Vidya wrote, “God bless you @LakshmiManchu for saying this out loud. It is so unfortunate that the tragic and untimely death of a beloved young star Sushant Singh, Rajput has become a media circus. In the same breath, as a woman, my heart breaks at the vilification of Rhea Chakraborty. Isn’t it supposed to be ‘Innocent Until Proven Guilty’, or is it now ‘Guilty Until Proven Innocent’!? Let’s show some respect for the constitutional rights of a citizen and let the law take its course.”

Earlier, Lakshmi had tweeted about Rhea’s recent interview and slammed the ‘media trials’ that she was subjected to. Expressing faith in the investigative agencies and judiciary to dig out the truth, she had written, “…until then can we restrain ourselves from being evil and cruel and lynching of person and her entire family without knowing the facts. I can only imagine the pain the entire family is going through with these so-called media trials.”

“If something like this happened to me I would want my colleagues to stand up for me at least the ones that know me to say back off hang on leave her alone and I ask all of you to do the same back off hang on leave her alone until the entire truth is officially released. I am pained by what we have become. How are we being authentic if we don’t speak our heart when we have a voice to lend. I’m standing up for my colleague,” she added.

@sardesairajdeep @Tweet2Rhea @itsSSR . Wake up my industry friends… stop this lynching. #letthetruthprevail pic.twitter.com/5SCEX8Un8H

— Lakshmi Manchu (@LakshmiManchu) August 30, 2020

@LakshmiManchu pic.twitter.com/GnjPpsyoaq

— vidya balan (@vidya_balan) September 1, 2020

However, Sushant’s niece Mallika Singh slammed such tweets and wrote on Twitter, “I’m surprised that right now, some people are suddenly remembering what ‘pain of a family’ and ‘standing up for a colleague’ means.”