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Blossoming as a dewy-fresh daisy... getting trapped in the deepest abyss of physical and mental exploitation... breaking free of her shackles... rising again like a phoenix does from its ashes... and soaring to scale new horizons - she has done it all and more!

Shweta Basu Prasad, the little slip of girl in her school uniform who leapt straight into millions of hearts as the adorable daughter of Om (KiranKarmarkar) and Parvati (SakshiTanwar) in Balaji's defining TV blockbuster,'KahaniGharGhar Ki' (2000- ’08), was well on her way to carve out her own niche on Screen. 
She won a National Award winning for her role in 'Makdee' (2002) and a heartwarming one in 'Iqbal' (2005). Besides, she won the ITA Award for her superlative performance in ‘EkAurKahani’ (DD- 2006).

And then, she took a sudden detour to regional Cinema and did some largely inconsequential films down South and West Bengal and as it happens in most of such stories, money & means dried up while the family came to a crunch situation. Reportedly, that's when a scummy wheeler-dealer, Balu - aka Anjaneyula led her up the shady paths of flesh trade. In a police raid on a hotel in the upper-crust, plush Banjara Hills of Hyderabad, she was caught 'red-handed' with a business tycoon. 

All hell broke loose in Press & Media! 

A statement, allegedly by Shweta, appeared in Press, stating…

'I had made some wrong choices in my career and was out of money. I had to support my family and some other good causes. All the doors were closed and some people encouraged me to get into prostitution to earn money. I was helpless and with no option left to choose, I got involved in this act! I am not the only one who faced this problem and there are several other heroines who have gone through this phase!'

Shweta was sent to a Reform-home for 2 months, while the world was vertically divided between those who smacked their lips at the salacious details and the likes of Sakshi Tanwar, Hansal Mehta, Deepika Padukone et al, who stood by her solidly.

But coming back from the Reformatory, Shweta vehemently denied having ever made that 'confession'. Calling it a filthy figment of some reporter's imagination, she said that she was in Hyderabad on that day to attend an Award-function. But she didn't deny the raid, though – however, she insisted that she was just caught in the turmoil!

It would be an exercise in sheer futility to keep locking horns over whether the Journos were right or Shweta is.Shweta has now bagged the most coveted role of princess Nandni in Ekta Kapoor's 'Chandra-Nandni' (Star Plus).

Here is to hoping that she rules the Screen once again!
 

- Virendra Bhargava