Let me give you an audacious dare. Scroll Instagram and do not stop to watch Rakhi Sawant and her latest antics. Go ahead and try! Controversy’s baby, Sawant is a woman you can love or hate, but definitely cannot ignore. Rakhi Sawant has dominated TV screens, our social media feeds, and news headlines for years now. Some deem her crass, some laud her outspokenness and some find guilty pleasure in her antics. What is it that makes her remain relevant, without being a conventional Bollywood star, years after she shot to fame?
Oddly Obsessed With Rakhi Sawant: Decoding Paparazzi’s & Controversy’s Favourite Child
Showbiz, swayamvar and scandals: If there’s someone who’s successfully grabbed eyeballs, and incessantly made headlines, for over a decade, it’s got to be Rakhi Sawant.
- Rupsha Bhadra
- Editorial
- Updated - 2023-08-22, 16:50 IST
This is the third article in our series Oddly Obsessed, where we try to decode whacky Internet trends, sensations and pop culture phenomena that the world can’t seem to get enough of. Read the last ones on the craze about South Korean boy band BTS here.
The Rakhi Sawant Phenomenon
The craze around and for Rakhi Sawant is real. Her 10 million following on Instagram bears testimony to that. For context, that’s more than actors like Vidya Balan and Vaani Kapoor. Fans gasp at every life development, paparazzi follow her around, and despite her shooting to fame back in the early 2000s, there hasn’t been a time when Rakhi Sawant wasn’t ‘trending.’
To give credit where it's due, Rakhi has continuously provided fodder to feed news streams and social media timelines.
Barely a week goes by when you don’t hear a Rakhi Sawant update. In recent times, it’s been a new marriage falling apart that’s been keeping paparazzi, and eyeballs, hooked to developments. Sawant started dating Adil Durrani soon after her divorce in 2022 and married him sometime later in the year. There was a surprise reveal of nuptials at the beginning of 2023, and within just two months since we’ve witnessed family drama, eventual accusations of domestic violence, extra-marital affairs, and even court proceedings. Durrani later claimed Rakhi married him without divorcing her previous husband. (And you thought your life was dramatic, did you?)
We see every development unfurl not through the media probing or “Exclusive” bytes, but from her own narrations, given to paparazzi that seem to follow her everywhere. Every dramatic narration of her life getting spoiled, heartbreak, photos of her bruised face, and intricate details of his affair were presented to paps, who relentlessly chased her everywhere.
Pallav Palival is a popular celebrity photojournalist on whose feed Rakhi is a favourite upload.
“She keeps giving content, so obviously, the paps keep following her. Bollywood stars only stay in the limelight when their movies release or when they get married. The usual gym looks start to get boring. But Rakhi keeps giving content,” he told HerZindagi. Pallav’s team focuses on celebrities and he points to a cyclic pattern of some celebrities, like Rakhi, helping entertainment and gossip pages gain traction.
The Rakhi Sawant Formula
It’s easy to spot how each of Rakhi’s scandals and controversies is followed by and laced with significant career developments.
Soon after her recent spat with Adil, she announced opening her acting academy in Dubai. In her earlier days, the ‘Mika Singh Kiss’ episode unleashed a series of 'appeals to media’. An incident that both parties milked, (remember Mika’s ‘Tune Pappi Kyu Li’ song?) laid the foundation for the formula that Rakhi excelled at. Each reality show debacle would be followed up with an appearance, an item song, and other career highlights that ensure her time in the limelight. Beyond her claim to fame of appearing on Bigg Boss, her own televised Swayamvar, she had a show called Rakhi ka Insaaf, several item numbers, she also starred in films, television shows and made appearances on comedy reality shows, dance shows, and more. Her net worth is reportedly several crores.
While the Kardashians are popularly branded as “famous for being famous”, Rakhi Sawant could well be our desi replica for managing to remain relevant for nothing in particular. Some might view it unfair to credit her career growth and success to her stirring up scandals.
If ‘virality’ and success are as formulaic, why haven’t others replicated them? You may not be alone if you spotted versions of Rakhi Sawant—a Sherlyn Chopra or a Payal Rohatgi—who perhaps tried but did not manage to match the OG’s success. Kamaal R. Khan, with his YouTube reviews and controversial stances, tried the same trope. But have any managed to do it for years on end, on the scale that Rakhi does it? Debatable.
Also read: ‘I Eat Three People’s Meals in One Go’: Decoding the Rise of Indian Mukbangers
The Many Controversies Of Rakhi Sawant
The list is never-ending, to be fair.
Before she shot to fame thanks to the first season of Bigg Boss, she’d done small roles and item songs in some movies. Remember Mohabbat Hai Mirchi and her role in Main Hoon Na? Even though she did not win Bigg Boss 1, people remembered her iconic phrase “oh jesus” and her trying to teach dance to her fellow contestants.
However, she has been in the news more for her antics, revelations, and scintillating statements than for any of her acting or dance outings.
One of her early brushes with controversy was the infamous kiss with Mika Singh, in which she alleged that the singer had forcibly tried to kiss her at his birthday party. This was in 2006. Almost 15 years later in 2021, the two were seen reuniting and grabbing coffee together.
In 2018 she alleged that Tanushree Datta, the actor who’d lodged #MeToo allegations against Nana Patekar, had raped her. Sawant said Datta was a “lesbian with male body parts”, causing much brouhaha on social media and otherwise.
There isn’t any development, B-town wedding, or movie release that Rakhi doesn’t have a hot take on.
On Bigg Boss 14, she was a finalist, but her journey on the show was a rollercoaster. She wrote another contestant’s name all over her body to (literally) display her love for him. She even slipped into her ‘Julie’ shoes in 2015, who was basically a ghost, and claimed to have haunted the house for 200 years. Inside the house, she also revealed a side of hers that craved affection and companionship.
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Unlike most other Bolly stars who shy away from being seen with their significant others, Rakhi’s love life has almost been an open book. Starting from her reality show where she was picking out her someone special, Rakhi ka Swayamvar, to her entry on Bigg Boss 15 with her supposed husband Ritesh Singh, to her present situation with Adil, her relationships have been tumultuous to say the least.
If you’d hop onto her Instagram page, you’d spot simultaneous statements about Adil harassing her along with videos of the two romancing (with broken heart emojis in the caption) on her feed.
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She even founded her own political party, Rashtriya Aam Party, and intended to contest the Lok Sabha Elections, but she ended up getting only 15 votes, and lost her deposit.
On her Instagram or even just generally through paparazzi pages, we are often exposed to the insides of Rakhi’s wardrobe and mind, which is always entertaining. She happily gave a detailed tour of her Dubai house. Dressed in pop pink, she sang and danced to ‘Pardesiya’ at the airport. She’ll use absurd audios floating around on the app and make reels to them. Her bejewelled outfits are often an added bonus to all of this. She tied utensils to her body and belly danced. A lot of this gives us a sense of surrogate gratification, through watching her do things we may in our wildest dreams think of doing, but in reality would never attempt to it.
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The only feeling all of it sparks is “Wait, what?” and that’s the best way to describe all that Rakhi Sawant presents us with.
Paparazzi's Darling
There’s an undeniable link between the paparazzi and Sawant, and the same is quite evident if you stalk any of the paparazzi pages. But the photographers explain why.
“There used to be an andhadhun craze (blind craze) for celebrities. But with fewer hits, more players and regional actors joining the bandwagon, there’s been a shift,” Pallav Pallival, the photojournalist explains. “Be it Rakhi Sawant, Uorfi Javed, Tejasswi Prakash or others, what happens is that the public gets addicted to watching them on TV. So when these reality shows end, and the public wants more of them, that is when the role of paparazzi comes into play.”
People keep engaging with their content, so all the pages that post this content also keep growing. Some social media pages and organisations run on just engagement, so the demand never diminishes.
On Viral Bhayani, a popular paparazzi page, each of her videos garner over a million views. Similarly, other entertainment, gossip, and Bollywood news pages get high amounts of engagement when they post content related to her. So one cannot deny, people do care about her, regardless of what they feel about the said antics.
Pallav is quick to add he doesn’t condone shoving a camera into celebs’ faces no matter what the situation is, hinting at Rakhi’s mother’s death recently. He says that in some situations, privacy should be respected.
A common notion is that it’s the paparazzi that often keep such celebs relevant.
“Paparazzi is a very strong medium to keep people alive. Now, paps are also chasing their own views, YouTube views and more, so it’s a two-way street, where both grow. So the celebs grow, but the paps also themselves grow, and thus their feeds are full of these celebs,” he explains.
Beyond the paps, the media too plays its part in broadcasting news about her. Recently, a media house followed her as she allegedly went to her ex-husband and in-law’s house in an attempt to confront them about his errant behaviour. Search for any of her absurd life events, and you’ll find headlines, timelines and more. The media has followed her around right from 2011, when she slapped her then beau Abhishek Awasthi on Valentine's day, for cheating on her. Rakhi ka Sawayamvar was broadcast on NDTV Imagine, and was hosted by actor Ram Kapoor, where she chose NRI Elesh Parujanwala, but eventually never married him.
She has, all in all, become a pop culture phenomenon that’s kept audiences hooked.
The Shift from Conventional Celebrities
Rakhi Sawant has always been a celebrity, but she’s quite the shift from how we, the audience, have been witnessing stardom.
If you think of any other conventional celebrity right now, chances are, the only insights you get into their lives are from their carefully crafted answers in media meets or movie promotions, where journalists only ask what they’re allowed to ask. The rest is gossip columns and rumours.
When they’re spotted outside, these celebs sport a shy smile, a nod and a wave, but they maintain an air of secrecy about their lives. Rakhi is a wide shift away from this altogether.
She is brash and outspoken. With her debut itself, she was often referred to as the “sex symbol.” She is pretty aware of the gaze that follows her and doesn’t shy away from delivering sensational takes. She may not be the most well-versed in English, but she doesn’t refrain from enacting dramatic phrases and actions in front of the camera. On her good days, you’ll see her reacting with giggles, poses and provocative expressions, while on her bad days, she’ll break down with the same ease and emote her helplessness. She’s desi, sometimes relatable, and sometimes the exact opposite.
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She answers whatever question is hurled her way. She is upfront and opens about each day, occurrence and feeling. She allows the audience into her life, her medications, her tears, her clothes, her bad days, her many moods, and thus, opens doors willingly for discourse, judgement, and criticism.
Us, The Hypocritical Audience
Love her or hate her, one just cannot ignore her, and that’s the truth.
What keeps eyeballs hooked is a mix of unpredictability and “cringe” behaviour that she never shies away from indulging in. It’s chaotic, but also weirdly addictive. Despite her raging popularity, Rakhi Sawant has not received the respect and often basic civility that ‘big stars’ get with ease.
She’s often been dismissed as obnoxious, annoying, dramatic, or just mindless. Shows and brands want to encash her following, but hesitate to give her dignity. Even on Karan’s Koffee Couch, questions came her way with smirks and belittling spurts of laughter.
Even by her audience, Rakhi has been egged on to continuously up her game. On one hand lapping up her drama and on the other dissing her for being too dramatic.
It also brings us to the larger debate about hating on “cringe” content but continuing to indulge in it. Something about such content makes us go back to it because the joke isn’t on us. It is a sense of voyeuristic pleasure of watching her do obnoxious acts, which we’re too uptight to ever indulge in.
On a Koffee With Karan episode, Sawant had candidly said “Jo Bhagwan nahin deta wo doctor deta hai” (what God doesn’t give, a doctor can) referring to going under the knife, something no tinseltown celeb would ever admit to so nonchalantly.
All celebs primarily depend on directors, producers, movies, shows, endorsements and a whole bunch of others to help them stay relevant. However, what can confidently be said about Rakhi is, “Jo movie industry nahin deta, woh audience deta hai.” Rakhi’s best friends and worst enemies are the audience, which with all its idiosyncrasies, can’t get enough of her.
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