When the teaser for The Traitors Season 2 dropped, there was a familiar face for Bengalureans – content creator Rida Tharana. She entered the reality show as an innocent trying to figure out who among them was hiding their identity as a traitor. The game, however, took an unexpected turn when she herself became one.
The emotional toll became particularly evident in the latest episode, with the ousting of her ‘good friend’ Prish, followed by that of co-contestant Ansh Chopra. The pressure eventually became overwhelming, leading to a emotional breakdown during her time on the show. While the season is currently moving ahead with Tharana making it to the finale, it marks a new chapter for the creator, with her journey to this point being far more layered than a television debut.
As she remains tight-lipped about the show, Tharana has also ventured into entrepreneurship with clothing brand Nari, working alongside co-founder-entrepreneur Navya Varma. But behind these latest chapters is a much more personal journey of learning to find her voice and becoming comfortable in her own skin. Her journey has also been shaped by her family. The expectations that came with that role meant growing up quickly and becoming independent early. “I grew up hyper-independent. I was the elder sister to two of my sisters. I was always under constant pressure because my parents were always like, ‘You can’t make any mistakes.’”
That pressure eventually became something she had to confront through therapy. Once she began earning, one of the first things she chose to invest in was her mental well-being. She says therapy helped her recognise where her anger, trust issues and need for control came from.
When she began creating content in her early twenties, being accessible to her audience felt natural. But as her following grew, so did the expectation that she explain every decision and share every aspect of her life, sharing, “Your early 20s are also very gullible, right? Your self-love is not developed. You’re so excited. You’re like, ‘Oh my God, I have to justify myself. I have to prove myself. I have to share my side of the story.’”
Today, at 27, she is more conscious of what belongs online and what remains hers. “The more I grow older, the more I want to keep things to myself,” she says, pointing to her personal relationships as one area she has deliberately kept private. Understanding these boundaries has come alongside a changing relationship with herself. Growing up, Tharana struggled with her appearance, particularly her skin tone and hair. She recalls trying to change herself to fit conventional ideas of beauty. “I absolutely did think that if I scrubbed my skin enough, my colour would change,” she recalls. She also saved money to straighten her hair because she did not know how to manage her now much-talked-about curls.
Moving to Bengaluru for higher education changed the perception. The city gave her friendships, work, independence and, most importantly, the confidence to dream. “I once had a girl walking up to me and telling me, ‘Oh my God, you have the prettiest skin colour. You look like caramel.’ If you’re in an environment that constantly criticises you, you start believing in it, even though you don’t want to believe in it. You have to leave the place,” she says.
Her ‘influence’ has also travelled back to Kodagu. She has seen girls question expectations around marriage and education, something she considers one of the most meaningful outcomes of her journey, recalling, “I have a lot of girls who are standing up for themselves, especially from my family and village, who say ‘I don’t want to marry, I want to study.’”
But for someone whose career began online, her ultimate dream is surprisingly offline. Tharana hopes to eventually own a piece of land in Kodagu, build a home, have animals and create a space where she can host people. “Eventually, my end goal is to kind of detach from all of these things and go back to my roots and just to have that life where I don’t have to show people what I’m doing.” And despite once wanting to leave Kodagu, she now sees it differently. “As much as I wanted to leave Kodagu, it’s also where I belong. It’s my home,” she smiles.