Sonakshi Sinha

The announcement of a fast track trial for the Shiney Ahuja case elicited a few negative remarks in the letters page of some of the Mumbai dailies. A section of the public wondered why speedy dispensation was needed only because a celebrity was involved.

Without entering into a debate, here is what happened more than 20 years ago when a similar rape case happened in the Mumbai film industry.

Kishore Sahu was a very well-known actor — you’d probably remember him as Waheeda Rehman’s husband, Marco, in Dev Anand’s Guide. This Kishore was as colourful as his namesake (Kishore Kumar) and there used to be several stories about his women. Reportedly, Meena Kumari was one of them. But of course, Kishore Sahu was married and had grown-up kids too. One was son Vicky Sahu who did side roles in films like Basu Chatterjee’s Khatta Meetha. There was a daughter named Naina Sahu who also acted in Hindi movies — she played the lead in Hare Kaanch Ki Chudiyan. Neither of them did even half as well as dad Kishore Sahu.

But it was another son of his called Rohit Sahu who really hit the headlines — for a rape charge that sounded exactly like the Shiney Ahuja case. Rohit Sahu was called a producer-actor when he made it to the front pages but in reality, he didn’t really do much for a living. It was like it is in many filmland families where offspring live off one super-successful parent and don’t achieve much on their own.

Like the recent one, Rohit Sahu was also charged for the rape of his maid. That also apparently happened when his wife, Monica, was out of the house and, eerily like the Shiney Ahuja episode, this too was a broad daylight, afternoon rape. The story that went around then was that the maid was tied to a window sill and raped standing up. Reportedly, when the maid went sobbing to a neighbouring building, one of Monica Sahu’s kitty party friends took the maid to a social worker called Anandini Thakur. Anandini is well-known in the Bandra-Khar area for being a no-nonsense worker, never shy of creating a noise over a cause. She got the cops in and after the maid was examined, when they went to arrest Rohit Sahu he was surprised that a complaint had been lodged by the alleged victim. It is said in the Shiney case too, that he was taken aback when the cops turned up at his doorstep.

Rohit was a married man with three daughters when he was charged with the rape of his maid.

However, the major difference in the two cases is that Rohit Sahu was charged at a time when there were barely one or two papers in circulation, the major dailies rarely gave film people much mileage and TV channels were non-existent. Therefore, the kind of hysteria kicked up today over any episode involving a film person didn’t happen in Rohit’s case.

The law took its own course. Rohit came out on bail. Wife Monica (who passed away a few years ago) stood by him, à la Anupam Ahuja today. In fact the whisper is that Monica couldn’t really forgive her kitty party friend for taking the maid to the social worker.

The Rohit Sahu case reportedly took its own time coming up for hearing. And by the time it did, in the absence of media hype, nobody was interested in it, the public certainly didn’t remember it and even the maid couldn’t be traced anymore. Perhaps a fast track hearing would’ve helped the case.

For something more cheerful, celebrations are on in Shatrughan Sinha’s family. Daughter Sonakshi Sinha, as mentioned first in this column many months ago, has turned actress. When Arbaaz Khan had taken a front row seat at Sonakshi’s debut walk on the fashion ramp last October, one had thought he was simply a casual well-wisher who’d dropped by. But he was obviously impressed by the 21-year-old Sinha girl and when he turned producer, he pursued her till she agreed to do his film opposite 43-year-old Salman Khan. Of course, the age difference won’t matter. As Katrina Kaif insists, the public has accepted superstars like Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman so wholeheartedly that age doesn’t ever pose a hurdle in their adulation.

Sonakshi Sinha has already begun attending workshops to get her act right before she goes in front of the camera this September-October. Stand by for a blast of Sinha-Khan friendship in the coming months.