Aditi Rao Hydari made her debut in Bollywood with Delhi 6 and has worked in the Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam film industry. Not many of her fans know that she is the great-granddaughter of colonial Hyderabad’s former prime minister Akbar Hydari.
Few years ago, the actress added that she faced Bollywood casting couch and had no work for months. 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 for sexual favours from a job applicant in exchange for a job in the entertainment industry, especially acting roles.
The 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.
Time and again actresses have spoken up against the casting couch and harassment. Previously, #MeToo movement hit the headlines which exposed some popular names from several professional fields across the country.
Aditi Rao says she faced Bollywood casting couch, had no work for months
During a conversation with Sunday Guardian, she added that she had been in some tough situations but she came out of them.
She said, “I did lose work and I cried about it. I didn’t regret it but I cried about it because I felt so upset that this was true and this is how girls are treated. I was like, how dare someone speak to me like that! For about eight months [after the incident] I didn’t get work, but I feel that decision made me stronger in my intention about the kind of work I wanted to do.”
While citing the ‘misuse of power’, she echoed that ‘girls need to empower themselves’. She added, “It’s about power play in the industry, and you should nip it in the bud. What is the fear? That you won’t get work? If you are talented, the right people will call you.”