On Monday, Mumbai woke up to reality-show contestant Kamya Punjabi’s announcement that she had made a short film featuring her late friend Pratyusha Banerjee which she will release on her first death anniversary.
Pratyusha’s boyfriend Rahul Raj Singh scoffs at Kamya’s aspirations. “What film is she talking about? How and when did she shoot this film with Pratyusha? I’ve a record of all of Pratyusha’s activities in the months before I lost her. She was always with me. We went together to Ranchi for my brother’s child’s naming ceremony. Then we went to Goa. When did Pratyusha shoot this so-called film with Kamya?”
Describing it as “bogus” and a “fraud”, Rahul says the purported film is a cruel joke. “This is nothing but an attempt to make money in a dead person’s name. How can this woman continue to use Pratyusha’s name to get publicity? Only I know what her thoughts and feelings were. She was planning a big birthday party for me when she was snatched away from me.”
A year has passed since Pratyusha’s death, but Rahul claims to be still grieving as though the tragedy happened yesterday. “I start crying suddenly for no reason. I had fallen in love with her. And now when I’ve lost her I cannot bear to see her name being used cheaply by people whom she hardly met.”
Rahul is all set write a book on Pratyusha. “It’s an idea that I’ve been living with for some time now. It came to me after I found a diary written by her in my house. Through that diary I got to know her even better. I want to write my book on the Pratyusha that only I knew, and the girl I’d have known if she had only lived longer.”
