About two weeks ago, those who followed popular Chennai-based Radio Jockey and singer Suchitra Karthik on Twitter were surprised to see a sudden reverence for the actor Dhanush on her timeline. "Dhanush is a god!!!," exclaimed one February 20 tweet, far removed from Suchitra's usual style, which led to people speculating that perhaps a friend - or even Dhanush himself - had gotten hold of Suchitra's phone and was sending out casually embarrassing tweets. All in good fun, it seemed.
Not quite, alas. Soon the 34-year-old singer was, via Twitter, alleging that her account had been hacked, and that Dhanush's assistants had "manhandled" her - a claim that hasn't been elaborated on by Suchitra or by Dhanush - along with photographs of her bruised arm.
This was only the beginning of the confounding saga that has been labelled #Suchileaks. It hit a sordid peak on Saturday when a series of tweets from Suchitra accused Dhanush - the National Award-winning actor who is also Rajinikanth's son-in-law - of having drugged and molested her.
Over the last week, Suchitra - or at least her Twitter account @SuchitraKarthik (with over 5,00,000 followers) - claimed to expose a casting couch nexus and the way Tamil film producers prey on young actresses. This was followed by a slew of pictures and emails, most of which were already in the public domain, and the rest barely noteworthy. Still, feathers had been ruffled, and soon, Karthik Kumar, her estranged husband, stepped in and made a heartfelt plea for sensitivity since, he explained, the singer is suffering from mental health problems and her tweets should not be taken personally.
