India, Feb. 8 -- A fter nearly seven years away from acting, actor Rhea Chakraborty returns to the screen with filmmaker Hansal Mehta's upcoming series. Her comeback follows a prolonged period of legal battles and public scrutiny following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June 2020, whom she had dated from early 2019 until his passing. Opening up about the emotional struggle of being away from her acting career, she says, "Letting go of this dream of acting, which I had worked towards for over a decade, took many sessions of therapy. I had to stop thinking about it because I couldn't have it; I didn't get acting opportunities." Rhea's last theatrical release was Chehre (2021); she later appeared in the reality show Roadies (2023, 2025) and hosted her podcast Chapter 2 (2024-26). Yet, she was largely away from mainstream acting. The 33-year-old adds that the break was not by choice: "I had to pause, with discomfort and pain. Maybe I wouldn't have been ready immediately after what happened anyway, emotionally, mentally, or physically. The years when no one wanted to work with me were excruciatingly painful. God and the universe have given us all resilience; we just have to tap into it. Had it not been for my friends and family, I don't think I would have come out of it the way I did."...