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Subhash K Jha (DNA; November 11, 2014)

Swastika Mukherjee, till recently unknown in Hindi cinema, has ensured she is a recognisable name in Mumbai before her first film — Dibakar Bannerjee’s Detective Byomkesh Bakshy — with Sushant Singh Rajput hits the screen.

Recently she was in the news for shoplifting in Singapore. However, the Bong girl said that she was only indulging in a spot of method acting. She said that she was practising to be a spy by stealing jewellery in a Singapore shop.

But not everyone is ready to believe that. An actress who has worked with Sushant rubbishes this claim as “utter hogwash”. “What is being suggested here? That she needs to steal to prove herself a spy? What would she do if she had to play a rape victim?” she asks.

A Bengali co-star of hers thinks Swastika “planned and orchestrated” the shoplifting scandal in Singapore to coincide with her debut in Bollywood. “She is very clear in her head that she wants to be the the next Sharmila Tagore and Bipasha Basu combined. She realised Detective Byomkesh was Sushant’s film through and through. She wanted her own portion of attention. She got it when the swiped earrings made news all across India,” she says.

A senior Bengali actress who was herself quite notorious in her times quips, “Forget shoplifting, Swastika would lift the entire shop to get attention.”