RHEA CHAKRABORTY RECLAIMING HER IDENTITY

After years of relentless scrutiny, Chakraborty moves forward with grace and grit, turning pain into purpose with her podcast Chapter 2—and helping others find strength along the way.

- BY RENUKA MODI PHOTOGRAPHS BY FARHAN HUSSAIN STYLED BY OJAS KOLVANKAR

As with most Indians, my acquaintance with Rhea Chakraborty began in 2020, when she became the subject of a frenetic witch-hunt that became a national obsession. In the period that followed the death of her former partner, the actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Chakraborty spent nearly a month in jail, and it would be five years before she would be allowed to close that chapter—which she finally did with the return of her seized passport this October.

In sharp contrast to that frenzy, the person I met at the GQ Heroes summit is poised, calm and collected. Someone who speaks openly about the trauma that she and her family (her parents and brother) have had to deal with over the past years. "We share a deep bond that goes beyond words and actions. We've trauma-bonded now and are inseparable. But even before that, we were four best friends living under a roof. I feel so much guilt about putting my family through this. I dated someone, and they had to deal with the aftermath." Everything she does now is to make life better for her family, she adds.

Her father, Lieutenant Colonel Indrajit Chakraborty, was a doctor with the Indian Army and her mother was a journalist. She had a sporty childhood, played basketball for Haryana and moved across the country with her family, which included attending 14 schools. She got her professional start as a model and an MTV VJ. She followed this up with a debut in Telugu cinema (Tuneega Tuneega), before moving to Mumbai to make it in Bollywood. In a full-circle moment, over the last two years, she's returned to her MTV roots, participating in and winning the hugely popular show Roadies.