Chehre producer on Rhea Chakraborty's absence from posters: 'Don’t want to take undue advantage of her situation'

Film producer Anand Pandit has spoken about why Rhea Chakraborty did not feature on the posters of their film, Chehre.

Rhea Chakraborty's first project to release after her arrest and subsequent bail last year will be Rumi Jaffery's Chehre. However, earlier this year, when new posters and teasers finally arrived online, there was no mention of Rhea.

Rhea Chakraborty is a part of Amitabh Bachchan and Emraan Hashmi's Chehre.

The film's representatives had even refused to address the matter when Hindustan Times had reached out for explanations. However, when the film's trailer was launched last month, Rhea finally made an appearance at the very end.

Now, the film's producer Anand Pandit has said that they did not want to gain publicity for their film with Rhea's situation. "I don’t see any reason for not mentioning her name. She is among the eight artistes in the film. We signed her much earlier and she completed her part satisfactorily. So, we are looking at her as one of the actors who’s done a good job," he said about Rhea in an interview to the Indian Express.

"Also, I don’t want to take undue advantage of her situation for the commercial benefit of my film. That’s why we decided that for the second poster, we won’t mention her name. She’s gone through enough turmoil in her life, and we didn’t want to add more ripples. We got her into the picture, only when she was comfortable," he added.

Rhea was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau in September last year after the death of her actor boyfriend Sushant Singh Rajput. She was accused of procuring and buying drugs for him. Her brother Showik Chakraborty was also arrested on similar charges. Both were later released on bail.

The public opinion towards Rhea was severely changed after Sushant's death. After his family accused her of abetment to suicide and misappropriating his funds, many started holding her responsible for his death. She faced constant abuse on social media and some sections of the media also painted an unfavourable picture of her.

However, she had recently started sharing more updates on Instagram and has even been spotted interacting with the paparazzi at airport and around Mumbai.

Chehre was scheduled to release this month but has been indefinitely delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Emraan Hashmi in lead roles.