HYDERABAD: Clothes do make a statement, even if you are in the midst of a keenly-watched media trial. Actor Rhea Chakraborty’s t-shirt which said ‘Roses are red, violets are blue/Let’s smash patriarchy, me and you’ touched a chord with celebrities and netizens. After the actor, who has been in the eye of a storm after the alleged suicide of her boyfriend and actor Sushant Singh Rajput, wore the t-shirt during an NCB hearing, the message on her t-shirt has been shared numerous times over social media platforms.
Director Anurag Kashyap and actor Kubbra Sait shared the message with the hashtag #justiceForRhea. Filmmaker Alankrita Shrivastava, who wrote the script for the much-acclaimed film, Lipstick Under My Burkha, shared the message and wrote “Because witches are always women.” These celebrities have raised their voices against what they called a witch-hunt against Rhea.
Commenting on the media trial, actor Farhan Akhtar tweeted: “So often I’ve heard, high pitched anchors on TV say ‘Don’t shoot the messenger! ’ .. now this girl is the messenger and they will ask you to shoot her. Think about that.” Later, actor Shibani Dandekar, who is also dating Farhan Akhtar, waddled into the controversy when she replied to a tweet by Sushant Singh’s ex-girlfriend, Ankita Lokhande. “This woman clearly wants her 2 seconds of fame and has capitalised on Rhea being targeted because she has had never dealt with her own relationship issues with Sushant.. she has been the driving force behind this and she needs to be called out!” wrote Shibani.
Some netizens, however, found the message on Rhea’s t-shirt ‘arrogant’, and called it a PR gimmick. The last time the ‘smash patriarchy’ message created an uproar was when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had held a placard saying: ‘Smash Brahminical Patriarchy.’ The company had later apologised for the placard.