Several actors, actresses have been the victim of harassment in the industry, which is the bitter truth. We have seen several actors recalling their casting couch experiences.
Casting couch is something which has been happening behind the scenes and it is not at all a new concept rather it is as old as our civilization. People started noticing it very recently. Several actresses have been a victim of harassment in the Film Industry as well.
The casting couch is a practice of asking sexual favours from a job applicant in exchange for a job in the entertainment industry, especially acting roles. Casting couch originally referred to physical couches in the casting office. This practice is termed illegal in the United States.
Male casting directors, as well as, film producers use the casting couch in a bid to extract sex from ambitious actresses in Hollywood, Bollywood and other segments of the cinema industry.
A director said he wants to know every inch of my body, says Surveen Chawla
During an interview with Pinkvilla, the veteran actress shared how she had chose not to work for a south Indian film after a director added that he “wants to know every inch of her body.”
Sharing another terrible experience, she said, “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 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.”
“On the same phone call, in which 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 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.”
“I had to barge out of an office because of somebody trying to insinuate an act and I will never do that. Lines to me are very very clear. One filmmaker wanted to see how my cleavage looks and one filmmaker wants to see how my thighs looked. This kind of stuff happens,” the actress recalled the incident that happened in 2017.