.htaccess internal rewrite rule not working on wordpress links

Hello, i have a xampp localhost wp setup. htaccess works, mod_rewrite is on.
The wp pages have multiple hyperlinks inside post body which visitors can click & open in new tab as https://localhost/mysite/tickets/Txtxjxxjxcxsx where Txtxjxxjxcxsx is different value for different links & contains numbers,alphabets & special characters like +,/,=

I am trying to internally redirect https://localhost/mysite/Txtxjxxjxcxsx to https://localhost/mysite/tickets/book.php?id=Txtxjxxjxcxsx via htaccess but i am not getting any success. I tried the below rule :

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^tickets/(.*)$ tickets/book.php?id=$1

But i keep getting Error 403 Access Forbidden.
Note when this htaccess rule is active , if i visit directly https://localhost/mysite/tickets/book.php?id=Txtxjxxjxcxsx , the book.php is able to execute & show output but visiting https://localhost/mysite/tickets/Txtxjxxjxcxsx gives Error 403 Access Forbidden.

I also tried adding END flag :

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^tickets/(.*)$ tickets/book.php?id=$1 [END]

In this case too i get Error 403 Access Forbidden on visiting https://localhost/mysite/tickets/Txtxjxxjxcxsx But the new thing i noticed is that when this htaccess rule is active , i get a BLANK PAGE if i directly visit https://localhost/mysite/tickets/book.php?id=Txtxjxxjxcxsx .

From what i understand in all my previous attempts with htaccess rules , when the server is asked by a visitor to open link https://localhost/mysite/tickets/Txtxjxxjxcxsx , it doesnt understand this link as the internal rewrite is not working and as the url https://localhost/mysite/tickets/Txtxjxxjxcxsx doesnt actually exist it might be showing me that error 403 as its unable to internally redirect to https://localhost/mysite/tickets/book.php?id=Txtxjxxjxcxsx ?

I am a complete beginner in htaccess stuff, i had been trying to make it work since 2 days but i have not got any success.How to make it work & get the desired result ? Please help me. Thank you