Vikas Gupta slams an open letter to a leading tabloid!
A leading tabloid carried an article stressing on the un-empathetic TV actors who chose to gain their '15 minutes to fame' banking upon the suicide by the actor.
Published: 星期二,4月 05, 2016 19:47 下午 GMT-06:00
Pratyusha Banerjee's death left the industry in a state of pandemonium and shock. The actors from Telly town got together to organize a press conference justifying the cause of her death to be a suicide provoked by boyfriend Rahul Raj Singh.
Following to this incident, a leading tabloid carried an article stressing on the un-empathetic TV actors who chose to gain their '15 minutes to fame' banking upon the suicide by the actor.
While the actors might have expected a support from the media, after reading this piece of news, Vikas Gupta, Producer of Lost Boy Productions has taken up a stand for himself and his associates with an open letter to the said publication.
It read:
"When Being Called Superman becomes an abuse. Journalism or Personal Attack
I was returning from office, I got a call from a journalist saying that Piyu (Pratyusha Banerjee) has tried to commit suicide and has been admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. Being April 1, I too like many others thought that this was an April fools' joke. I immediately called her. Hearing her emotional callertune, I felt uneasy and phoned a common friend, who could source Pratyusha's mother's number. On the other end, I dropped her a text message and was surprised to find her friend introducing herself in the reply and mentioning about the news being true.
I froze! In no time messages started flooding my inbox and Whatsapp.
I informed a few close friends and rushed to see Pratyusha. I met Mac (Pratyusha's ex-boyfriend - Makrand Malhotra) who was on call with Rahul I sat alone in one corner of the ward with her body. She was lifeless, but i was hoping she would get up any moment. I spoke to the doctor, who informed me that all information has been communicated to her family and it is only when the police comes, that he will be able to share further details about the suicide.
I wanted to speak to Rahul but I saw Piyu's body unattended. I was there for almost an hour, with her alone; although it seemed like that it was way more. This was PRATYUSHA BANERJEE - the girl who was the biggest face on Indian Television 2 years back. Lying dead with no one by her side...
Her boyfriend dumped her body and made a narrow escape by informing that he was going to get some ticket purchase for her parents. I looked at her face and realised that it could be any of us! We all go through such phases. It could have been me given the fact that I have recently overcome a very disturbing phase with a contemplated ending. But it was 2 people whom I am grateful to, who helped me recover else I too might have taken such an extreme step.
Pratyusha was no more and slowly the news travelled. Her well-wishers started pouring in. Her friends from the industry left their shoots and reported directly in the hospital. There were the some who din't even know her and paid a visit for reasons best known to them! May be for 'publicity' as the press was present there...
It's truly said that life in Mumbai is so fast that we don't have time for each other and sometimes a tragedy brings people together. Piyu did the same. Our common friends and I waited for the police to come, Rahul to return, we discussed about her and what problems she was going through. We realised how selfish had we all been. We all knew she was in a bad relationship and yet none of us took charge and helped her out of this disturbance. We go to know how she had tried to reach many of us for getting the right support or may be to let the steam off, we discussed the good and the bad times while waiting for Rahul whose phone was switched off by then.
While at this, we had celebs coming to see her body and video-taping it secretly to calling her mom and recording the phone conversations and this somehow reached the news channels across the country. India, at that moment was listening to cries of a wailing mother. Kudos!
I spoke to her mother and with the help of others booked their tickets. The news was flashed about Pratyusha Banerjee committing suicide due to depression. Some really silly celebs went ahead to state that she had borrowed a sum of Rs. 5000/- from her.
It was this time, when we as an industry decided that 4 to 5 of us will talk to the media requesting people not to assume what transpired till the reports are out. There were a lot of us but we decided to let faces close to Piyu in public view take charge of the dais instead of the mini celebs spreading rumours.
We all wanted to do something but didn't know what as we were in a state of utter shock and dismay.
Since Pratyusha's body was taken to another hospital and her parents were supposed to come to Mumbai the next day, I went home to get some sleep. But all night thoughts kept haunting me - What if it was me???
In a matter of 2 weeks, people will get over this trauma and move on. They will be back to their routine life. End of everything. Breaking the thought, I messaged one of the many people who helped me and thanked the individual for the same. I informed on the phone that I couldn't get sleep but then I concluded that if I could not help my friend when she was alive, what can I do now?
The only thing I can do is help in all possible ways to help her parents overcome the misery of losing their daughter. I can explain them that she would want to leave this world in a dignified way and not the fake testimonies from different people.
She wasn't a depressed broke actress as depicted, who killed herself all over the media!
I don't need to mention it. It was all over the media. Piyu's parents who were devastated and in no condition to talk were made to give the police statements followed by the cremation ceremony. Her parents requested the police to get them justice for their beloved daughter and that they have no idea what unfolded that night. They too stated that she was a strong girl and she couldn't have killed herself.
Apart from that, there were numerous friends who wanted to give a statement as they knew more about Pratyusha's personal life than her parents given the fact that the latter stayed out of station. The friends were informed that they would be called soon.
Now when the cremation ceremony took place, not one but all noticed marks on her face around and on the nose and her cheek. Those were the same marks people had been murmuring about before seeing the body. We immediately clicked her pictures and recorded a video for personal investigation.
Soon, Pratyusha's ashes were handed over to the parents and we planned to have a prayer meeting on Tuesday post the final rituals.
Pratyusha had left the world.
We all were disturbed and waited to give statements to the police but nobody from the department interrogated us. When we initiated the matter once again, we were told that Rahul had been set free as they concluded the matter to be a 'pure case of suicide' which may have been due to financial depression.
Since we all negated this reason, actors and friends from the industry decided to quickly call media to tell them that there is more to the 'financial depression' and we have been trying to follow up with the police.
I had scheduled to meet somebody for dinner but I decided to push it for later. I am sure others too must have postponed their priorities then.
At the press conference, we informed everyone about the marks on her face, the late night call she made before she was found dead and her request for help to get out of the relationship she shared with Rahul. We also mentioned that she made to close friend Kamya Punjabi informing her that Rahul cheated on her. There was much more turbulence in her life than what meets the eye. We wanted to know the reason behind the marks on her face. If she hung herself there wouldn't have been scars on her nose and cheeks!
It wasn't a happy relationship that is being portrayed and a girl in a happy relationship will not kill herself one fine afternoon!
And yes, I was wearing a white superman t shirt and white shoes.
A letter was submitted to the police station requesting to take statement of the people who can give vital information on the case.
This is the first time in 3 days that I slept for 5 hours. I woke up to numerous messages and missed calls from well-wishers and random people on a report in the leading tabloid.
I read the report and my heart sank. The people mentioned in the report haven't cared about their work, sleep or health and were on their toes and are ridiculed and compared with people who have been extremely stupid and insensitive.
The report mentions actresses like Mouni Roy, Adaa Khan and Sara Khan coming to hospital with a makeup man. Now this is for the stupid journalist who might not be aware that the mentioned names came to the hospital in haste leaving their shoot mid-way. They were in tears and probably had somebody by their side to console them since their dear friend had died. But you decided to malign their image by portraying them as hungry women doing makeup and coming to give interviews for cheap publicity. How convenient!
Both Heer Patel who has been duped by Rahul for Rs. 25 lakhs and Sheetal Malviya for a sum of 8 lakhs were unknown to us and till the claims were checked we did not want them to be standing at the dais because if what they said was untrue, the statement would end up making a joke of the entire press conference.
For your information, we have checked and what they claim is true. They will hopefully be coming in front of the media as it is a series of crime against women, duping them of money.
But Ms. Journalist you completely decided not to ask or clarify. You immediately judged and wrote things which put us in bad light. You clearly hinted that it was bad of us to speak up for the wrong and the next probable thing you would be doing would be writing another article stating that it is we who planted the 'suicide'. Yes, I am still in my superman t-shirt.
A girl is found dead. Her boyfriend claims they were partying till 5 am in the morning and Leena Dais who is Pratyusha’s friend and Rahul’s rakhi sister testifies that she received a call from Pratyusha at 2.30 am crying and asking for help since she was tortured by Saloni Sharma. This information was backed by solid evidence – a CCTV footage which is in custody with the police.
After receiving such vital information, you choose to make this a joke by calling me a Superman in the same sentence as Pratyusha being tortured. Your journalism ethics are to be clapped.
Incase you are not aware, in the last three months; Pratyusha had shot for pilots and did not even charge me for shooting the same. And people say she had a financial crunch.
She was in touch with Rahul Raj Singh every day for the last three months and more. And it is this same person who runs away leaving her body at bay while we are right here fighting for her.
Being a journalist doesn't give you a right to assume and print anything that you might feel like and this personal attack is outrageous.
You have moved on from Ajaz Khan to Dolly Bindra but have not forgotten superman everywhere, either you love the superhero very much or you have loved the t-shirt too much. Just for your information, I hadn't gotten time to go back home so I changed and borrowed it from a friend Ravi Dubey as none of his clothes fitted me except this t-shirt and I had a dinner to go to. The shoes were the same that I had worn since 2 days. If you want that superman t-shirt, please contact Ravi, he will give it to you.
I am not sure if you have a real friend with whom you have had a heart to heart connection. Piyu and I were close and we have discussed our lives, our dreams, and the most important thing that we wanted, and having children was her dream so while the media was hounding that Pratyusha was pregnant and could have killed herself for that reason, was a height of stupidity and like you said superman jumped here and decided to say that if she was pregnant and knew about it then she would have never taken a step like this no matter the circumstance. You being a woman had to make fun of that as well. Actually, it's not about a man or a woman, it's about just being sensitive, which in your case is completely out of the window.
I am not sure what your problem is, Sanyukta Iyer, you at this point of time seem to be like one of the celebs you mentioned in your article who wants attention and will write anything so people can notice you. Bravo! you have succeeded but remember this; because of your this article, the next time if genuine people want to get up and help a friend, they will think twice because people like you, for their own benefit, whatever in this case may be, will humiliate them based on their clothes, intent, etc. You have defamed me and my friends. Your article is defamatory and it has caused me a lot of mental harassment, and also people are questioning my intent. You have not even spoken to me and tried to ask questions but just made assumptions and printed them.
Mumbai mirror which is such a respected paper has let it happen. Is it a thought out attempt to target or just a bad way to sell your story? Whatever reason might be, it has caused the damage it has done.
This letter also has been submitted to the police station where we requested the police to take statements from friends who have information and attach pics of Pratyusha where the bruises on her face are clearly visible. So let everyone see what we have seen and react. Is this just a suicide or there is more to it?
Mumbai Mirror this is for you. Please think about this. If a person close to you passes away and you have no answers, you see her face covered with bruises, and it has been called a suicide, then you raise a voice. Is this what your paper does, calls them names, makes fun of their clothes and try to humiliate them? ‪#‎ShameMumbaiMirror‬
We are filling a complaint against your publication because it is a direct attack and it looks like a personal vendetta to malign some of us. Whatever happens in this case, moving forward we, at least, will look back and will not have any regrets. We did give our best to get justice for our friend. We feel extremely bad for posting these pics but have realised this is the only way to let people know the truth.
There are loopholes and her parents and friends need answers. When it's being told in the media that it's a suicide case, why is Piyu's face full of bruises? None of us will be giving any more statements on this. Please talk to the police.
Ada Khan
Leena Dias
and the others who don't want to be named but have helped .
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Comments (34)
Shashank Vyas, you're a great friend. Good luck..
8 years ago
this case seems complicated and hats off to vikas and kamya who wants justice to the girl .strange thing is that partus...was stuck in the relationship but couldn't get out and what forced the girl to this extent seems fishy a suicide or provoking or murder time will solve ... i feel so bad for her parents this is what young generation lacks believe ur parents first than the total strangers ...strange and cheap thing happening the celeb 's who merely knew the girl are for publicity such a shameful act.rakhi,dolly and sara khan who are just hi friends are over acting and media daily updating crappy news about the dead girl better come out with perfect statement instead of making it sensation news daily ...media better move on go and cover other news which are more important in the country instead of digging this case disturbing her parents and ppl who stayed near by her apartment ...case will solve automatically
8 years ago
media and some actors did went overboard for this matter... this guy seems sincere and he is trying along others to help clean the name of a friend whom unfortunately they couldn't saved. What really stun me here is the comments of some people judging this person as if they knew these two friends relationship more than anyone... its really heartbreaking but shocking also to hear that a case classify as suicide but the actress had lots of bruises on her face means a lot... this is not only suicide if it is really one...if i was in that guy place i would have done the same..i would fight for justice
8 years ago
@ RD & your 24 idiot likers, Your comment shows you idiots have personal reasons against VG & prats friends.Here, he clearly proves that dumb Mumbai mirror is supporting that d*g Rahul. But you blinds are blaming him. Really nowadays IF has so many losers.And hats off to VG and all true friends of Prats.
8 years ago
where there is Vikas gupta..there will be a lot of drama and PC ...
8 years ago
Don't know whom to trust and whom not to. Sanyukta's article was clearly one sided and OTT. But had these celebs spent some time, cancelled few appointments earlier may be Pratyusha would be alive. But cannot blame them entirely because when they helped her Pratyusha did not need it as she trusted Rahul. What is it with the 2.30 AM call?? If Pratyusha asked for help then why didn't the friend go to her house for help. If somebody stayed with Pratyusha this would not have happened.
8 years ago
To anyone who says "where were her friends when she was alive and going through things"...I respect what you are saying and I understand too. But I will also say, that what happened was not their fault. As anyone who has been in a bad relationship or known someone who has been in one will tell you, no one and I mean NO one, can convince you to leave someone unless you are willing to do so! That is why women live and die in bad relationships daily. Not coz no on wants to save them. They just cant seem to save themselves. The truth is Pratuysha chose to stay with an abusive, manipulative and disrespectful man, who is nothing more than a crook who stole women's money, a white collar style con artist! Kamya said when she last spoke to her, she asked her to come stay at her house till she arrives back from Delhi. But PB refused and said she was OK. I understand how helpless her friends must feel now, coz they had not been able to save her from this guy. That is why now they are doing what they can to stop this con artist from going free. They dont want him to walk away from this after ruining their friends life and driving her to death. That is why I dont think this is about publicity. Non of the people there need to use PB for publicity, I think they are all pretty well known on their own. I think they really want to use whatever influence they have to stop this guy from escaping. Because to all accounts it seems, him, his ex, and his family are all crooks! So personally I support Pratyusha's friends in this instance.
8 years ago
Let the poor girl's soul rest in peace...too much drama is not needed here...show some respect people... Rip pratyusha..hope you will get justice..
8 years ago
Police is doing nothing Rahul said that she know many big ppl And go Bach jayega
8 years ago
What nonsense is this man spewing? It seems more like a self-promotion letter then something worthwhile to try ot get justice for a dear friend. Why try to make a tamasha for a poor girl's life? Go to the poice and try to solve the matter and please just leave her aloen. They were not with her hwen she was alive and now why fake the concern when she is no more? Being the patient of dpression myself, I can surely tell you that what hurts the most is the feeling that everyone is moving past when your life has stopped. When these so called friends do not once look back to see if you exist, it truly hurts. Friends are not about birthday parties, promotions, and happy times, but those who can look past all your masks. Those who will just tell you that no matter what, they will always be by your side. Finally, what is wrong in calling thier friendship into question? Just look at this guy's language! Friends will and msut help each other no matter what. It does not matter that the media could or may abuse thier names, but true friends will never bother about this. They will jsut quietly go about thier job, because they knnow that they are true. If he is looking for validation or praise from anyone to do the right thing for Prats, then he cannot be a true firend.
8 years ago