MUMBAI: It’s been five years since Pratyusha Banerjee’s sudden and unfortunate demise – she reportedly died by suicide at her home in Goregaon on April 1. Recently, her name resurfaced after Vikas Gupta in an interview mentioned that he had dated briefly Pratyusha, who catapulted to fame after playing the role of Anandi in Balika Vadhu. He added that the late actress only came to know about his bisexuality after they had split. This statement hasn’t gone down well with Pratyusha’s beau Rahul Raj Singh.

Rahul tells opens up, “Pratyusha was always open about her relationships. She never hid her personal life. Vikas Gupta is just making use of the situation because the person isn’t alive to respond to his claims. She had told me when we were doing the show Power Couple (2015) that Vikas had proposed to her and she declined it, as she was aware of his sexuality. When I asked her why didn’t take up any project after Balika Vadhu and cash in on the success of her show, she told me that Vikas had planned a project with her, which he scrapped later.” 

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Rahul accuses Vikas of using Pratyusha’s name to his advantage. “Pratyusha never dated Vikas, so the question of them parting ways doesn’t arise. In fact, they weren’t even on talking terms after a point. He shouldn’t cook up stories for publicity. Pratyusha would have slapped him had she been alive,” he says, adding, “I also don’t appreciate him bringing up my name in his interviews. I don’t think he has anything else to talk about other than me eating chips at the hospital (when Pratyusha had died by suicide). I find it defamatory and if this doesn’t stop, I will have to legal action against him. All I want to say is that stop using Pratyusha’s name to be in the limelight.” 

Stay tuned to this space for more updates and gossips. 

Credits: TOI