Actors like Kangana Ranaut, Radhika Apte, Tisca Chopra have admitted that the casting couch does exist in the industry and shared their experiences.
Senior actor Neena Gupta, who recently released her autobiography titled 'Sach Kahu Toh', has been making news for some shocking revelations that she has made in her book.
COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING
From speaking about her pregnancy days when she struggled financially to opening up on her horrific casting couch experience, Neena Gupta lay it all down in her book that has been receiving rave reviews from all quarters.
Revealing that a 'big-shot' producer from the South Indian film industry had asked her to 'spend the night', Neena wrote in her book, "One day, a friend told me to go visit a producer who was a big shot in the south… When I got to the hotel, I called the producer from a phone in the lobby. 'Yes, yes, I've been expecting you,' he said. 'Come on upstairs.' ‘So, what's my role, sir?' I asked him finally when he paused to catch his breath. 'The heroine's friend,' he said. When he explained it to me, it seemed like a very small part. 'Ok … I have to go now, sir' I said, 'My friends are waiting for me.'….'Go? Where? he asked. He seemed genuinely shocked. Aren't you going to spend the night here?' Suddenly, I felt like someone had just poured a bucket of ice water on my head. Khoon sookh gaya (My blood froze)."
But, Neena isn't the first one to have opened up about her horrific casting couch experience in the industry. Before her, actors like Kangana Ranaut, Radhika Apte, Tisca Chopra have admitted that the casting couch does exist in the industry and some even shared what they went through.
Take a look:
Surveen Chawla
In an interview with PinkVilla in 2019, the 'Sacred Games' star had said while talking about casting couch, "Then came south and that was my biggest blow. I faced casting couch thrice. There was a time I was told to accompany a film director for a recce and I was told 'I want to know every inch of your body'. I just started ignoring calls from then on." She added, "This was another ridiculously big director down south, a National Award-winning director. I had a very long audition there, it almost lasted a shift. I had to do various things – a monologue or saying something impromptu. I was unwell and I returned after the audition. Then the director suddenly offered to come to Mumbai as I was unwell. I found it very creepy and said ‘no, thank you’. On the same phone call, in which I was not speaking to the director as he could only speak Tamil and no English or Hindi. He spoke to me through someone, maybe a friend. That person told me on the phone that ‘sir needs to know you, he needs to understand you as this film will take a long time to make’. And then he jumped to ‘only till the film and then you can stop’. I very innocently asked him ‘stop what’. So, he said ‘just till the film this will go on; then you can stop’. I still remember my words. I told him that you are knocking on the wrong door. If sir thinks I am talented then I am still willing to work in his film but I cannot barter myself. And that film also didn’t happen."
Talking about casting couch experiences in the Hindi film industry, she said, "It happened quite recently, last to last year. I had to barge out of an office because of someone trying to insinuate an act and I will never do that,” she went on to add, "One filmmaker wanted to see how my cleavage looks and one filmmaker wants to see how my thighs looked. This kind of stuff happens."