Those who have seen the movie Uri must remember the child artist recreating the scene of the late Colonel MN Rai’s funeral, where his daughter shrieked an old Gorkha war cry to pay respect to her martyred father. Col Rai sacrificed his life in the line of duty in Tral, Kashmir, in January 2015. The child artist who recreated the scene in the film was Riva Arora. At the time of the film’s release, Riva was only nine years old.
Later she played the role of young Janhvi in the film Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl. When the film was released, Riva was ten years old.
Apart from films, Riva appeared in several television commercials during her initial years as a child artist. The innocence and the aura of the child were visible on her face for some time. However, things took a weird turn in later years, and slowly her appearance became more glamorous. Riva started gaining popularity on Instagram and YouTube as her career as an influencer grew, she ‘grew’ much faster compared to other children of her age.
So much so that the latest Instagram reel that she has created with actor Karan Kundrra has stirred major controversy. Karan, who is 38 years old, plays the role of the boyfriend of Riva in the reel, who already has a relationship with another man. The idea behind the reel is to showcase that the actress in the reel has an affair with two men. Both the actors opposite Riva in the reel are adults, while Riva is not even a teen. The reel also contained a bar scene where the 12-year-old girl sits cross-legged wearing a very revealing dress. She even moves, talks and uses the facial expressions of an adult woman who is dating 2 men.
Soon after the reel was released, someone on social media pointed out that Riva is just 12 years old and how inappropriate the reel was. As Riva has the features of an adult, those who followed her without much knowledge about her background were not aware of her age, and the revelation was not taken well by the netizens.
Concerns were raised not only about the comments and content but also about the possibility of Riva’s parents using hormone therapy or steroids to make her ‘appear as an adult’. Some rumours floated on social media that she went under the knife as well to enhance her breasts which would be highly unethical and problematic if true. OpIndia cannot independently verify these rumours at this stage as the parents of Riva have not released any statement.
12 y/o she’s……….steroids, injections…her mom is the main culprit behind it ! pic.twitter.com/1a2nc7FEkN
— II• મહાદેવ •II (@shiv_vaghani_13) October 16, 2022
Netizens react to Riva’s posts and social media
Soon after it was revealed that she was only 12, many netizens raised objections not only in comment sections on her posts on Instagram but also on other social media platforms like Twitter.
Reaction on Twitter
Many netizens raised concerns on Twitter.
Until 3 days ago, I hadn’t heard of Riva Arora. Now I know she’s a 12 year old who’s had natural or artificial precocious puberty and has been pushed by her ambitious parents to pose with men 3 times her age. This is the worst kind of exploitation.
— Nayanika (@nayanikaaa) October 18, 2022
I truely hope @NCPCR_ takes cognizance of everything disgusting that’s happened with Riva Arora and get the adults and parents involved in this mess to answer. https://t.co/Kr5C2Ps91j
— Maya (@Sharanyashettyy) October 18, 2022
Riva Arora’s parents hv special place reserved in hell.. hw can some1 do this to their own child, sexualizing at such a young age..may be she likes glitz and glamour now but eventually would put her in lot of mental stress in future. These kindof parents should be jailed fr
— Yashi🇮🇳★ (@itsYashi_) October 14, 2022
I just checked this out! It’s totally sick!
— Amrita Bhinder 🇮🇳 (@amritabhinder) October 18, 2022
What the hell! A litte girl being exploited by her own 🙁https://t.co/QpX3fFPbWF
This Riva Arora story is much problematic, her parents are so disturbed that they uses steroids to a 12 years old to be looking 18 plus.
— Vivek Pandey (@TheUP53sanghi) October 15, 2022
This is cruelty
Vulgar and paedophilic comments on her posts
It is important to note that despite being aware that she was only 12, there have been many Instagram users who left lewd and sexual comments that could be termed as paedophilic in nature. While some users suggested men should masturbate on her images, others called her sexy and noted that her breast bounced when she danced.
So far, there has been no official complaint, and it is unclear if NCPCR has taken any cognizance of the matter.
Problematic reels of child artists
This is not the first time child artists have been used by parents to gain popularity on social media. When the movie Gangubai Kathiawadi starring Alia Bhatt in the lead role, was released, several child artists dressed as her character in the film and performed scenes. Notably, Alia Bhatt played the lead role of Gangubai Kathiawadi in the film based on a real-life woman named Gangubai Kothewali, who was a prostitute and madam of a brothel.
