From protest ground to Bigg Boss house

Model Rhiya Ahir, who had famously stopped a police van during the NEET protests in Mumbai, had told Barkha Dutt on a talk show that she saw the protest as “a stepping stone if I can get it in the right direction.” PIC/By Special Arrangement

I shared Rhiya Ahir's awesome sauce photograph taken at the Mumbai protests. Her stance - one of defiance and courage, standing with her palm on the police van filled with protestors - made all of us feel something. She was us, and we were her. We were all proud of her. It would seem that July 22, 2026, became a turning point in Ahir's life.

She was all over Instagram, and news channels, and newspapers. Rahul Gandhi met her. She spoke to Faye Dsouza, and Barkha Dutt. She told Dutt, and this I remember, "I want to be a global star". And suddenly, her Instagram had a "paid subscriber offering".

It was at that time itself that netizens had started turning on Ahir. People wondered why she did what she did - was it because she believed in the movement, or was it because she wanted to be noticed, and become "famous"? People even found old photos, and slut shamed her. The Internet is cruel.

And now, she may be a part of Bigg Boss 20, which begins this Sunday. She is part of the show's "Fans Ka Faisla" mechanism, where fans will decide if she becomes a proper contestant or not.
She told the press that she was initially reluctant to do Bigg Boss because she felt the protest had given her a certain responsibility, but eventually decided that participating in the show didn't require her to abandon those convictions.

Now therein is the dilemma. Ahir was always a theatre actor and model. She has done a lot of substantial work, but we just didn't know about her. But the protests changed all that. Now, wouldn't it be really misplaced to grudge her using that newfound fame as a trampoline to catapult her into the "global star" she always wanted to be? As she told Dutt, she saw the protest as "a stepping stone if I can get it in the right direction".

Or should we judge ourselves for making her larger than the movement? Should we judge ourselves for thinking that the Bollywood kind of fame and the activist kind of fame can't exist together? Should we judge ourselves for expecting her to stay in the moral jail we make for the people we put on a pedestal? And are we now surprised (and jealous) that she is capitalising and monetising her clout?

My two bits are: Why can't she do both? She could have felt swayed by the emotion that was running high during the protests. So many of us showed solidarity - so much so that a minister resigned. Maybe she truly felt all she felt.

But she is also Rhiya, the actor, the performer. She got her seven seconds of fame, but she wasn't satisfied. She now wants more. She wants to build on it as much as she can. She has got a lot of lemons, and she wants to make lemonade. And where better to do it than Bigg Boss - which has resurrected many careers. The show that is so bad, that it is so good, and so addictive. That ways we will see her every day, every hour (thanks to the 24-hour channel), and everyone in India will know who she is.

Now, why will she not take the opportunity? I would have for sure. But the one time Bigg Boss approached me, they asked me to make a video where I was threatening other contestants with my aggressive journalist personality. I realised then that they got the wrong journalist. They were looking for Arnab.

But here's my last word. Yes, it could look and feel a bit off that a Gen Z activist that we all saw as the face of a movement, has decided to enter a reality show where jitna ladoge, utna dikhoge is the rule of the land. But as uncomfortable as we feel, we have to agree when Ahir says, "She has to earn a living too". Can we judge her for it? No way. Can we judge ourselves for the expectations we had? Yes. Lower them. Don't elevate people beyond what they can handle. Remember everyone is human. And next time, share the photograph, and forget about it when the Insta story vanishes after 24 hours. It's best that way.

See you next time.

Ranting and raving about all that's trending on social media, Aastha Atray Banan is an author, creator, podcaster, and the Editor of your favourite weekend read, Sunday mid-day. She posts at @aasthaatray on Instagram.
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