Esha Gupta says producer wanted to sleep with her; recalls casting couch experience
"But it's not the ghost that you are scared of, it's that person because you never when they...," Esha Gupta said.
Bollywood actor Esha Gupta has never been afraid about speaking the truth and has battled sexism and slut-shaming from trolls with bravery. In a recent interview, Esha opened up about facing not one, but two incidents of casting couch where the director and a producer made sexual advances towards her.
Speaking about experiencing the casting couch, Esha said that there was once a director who tried to get into her personal space during their outdoor shoots. Esha also revealed how she tackled the situation and said that she used to ask her make-up artist to sleep in the room with her.
Esha was quoted by Bollywood Bubble as saying, "But it's not the ghost that you are scared of, it's that person because you never when they...And you don't want to be disrespectful but the problem is they only do it to us. They won't do it to the industry kids because their parents would come and kill you. But to us, they would do it thinking 'isse kaam chahiye.' So eventually I saw a very dirty side of that person I worked with because they became vindictive when they realised 'she is going to do anything with me'."
Speaking about a second incident, Esha further said, "Halfway through the film, one of the producers told the maker of the film that 'I don't want her in the movie. Why is she there?' This was already after I had started shooting for 4-5 days. The maker came to me and asked, 'Did this happen with this guy?' And I looked at him and laughed and asked, "Yes sir, why?' 'NO, he just told me why Esha is there in the movie' And I realised because internally everyone knows. And some people don't give me work because they say, 'she's not gonna do anything, what's the point.' But you realise things and you make your own way."