From protest ground to Bigg Boss house

I shared Rhiya Ahirrsquos awesome sauce photograph taken at the Mumbai protests Her stance mdash one of defiance and courage standing with her palm on the police van filled with protestors mdash 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 Ahirrsquos lifeShe 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 ldquoI want to be a global starrdquo And suddenly her Instagram had a ldquopaid subscriber offeringrdquoIt was at that time itself that netizens had started turning on Ahir People wondered why she did what she did mdash was it because she believed in the movement or was it because she wanted to be noticed and become ldquofamousrdquo People even found old photos and slut shamed her The Internet is cruelAnd now she may be a part of Bigg Boss 20 which begins this Sunday She is part of the showrsquos ldquoFans Ka Faislardquo mechanism where fans will decide if she becomes a proper contestant or notShe 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 didnrsquot require her to abandon those convictionsNow therein is the dilemma Ahir was always a theatre actor and model She has done a lot of substantial work but we just didnrsquot know about her But the protests changed all that Now wouldnrsquot it be really misplaced to grudge her using that newfound fame as a trampoline to catapult her into the ldquoglobal starrdquo she always wanted to be As she told Dutt she saw the protest as ldquoa stepping stone if I can get it in the right directionrdquoOr 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 canrsquot 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 cloutMy two bits are Why canrsquot she do both She could have felt swayed by the emotion that was running high during the protests So many of us showed solidarity mdash so much so that a minister resigned Maybe she truly felt all she feltBut she is also Rhiya the actor the performer She got her seven seconds of fame but she wasnrsquot 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 mdash 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 24hour channel and everyone in India will know who she isNow 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 ArnabBut herersquos 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 ldquoShe has to earn a living toordquo Can we judge her for it No way Can we judge ourselves for the expectations we had Yes Lower them Donrsquot 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 Itrsquos best that waySee you next timeRanting and raving about all thatrsquos trending on social media Aastha Atray Banan is an author creator podcaster and the Editor of your favourite weekend read Sunday midday She posts at aasthaatray on InstagramSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper