Kalki was sexually assaulted as a child, but she used her platform to advocate for today’s victims and encourage them to step up and fight back. Kalki Koechlin was one of the Bollywood celebrities who turned down lucrative fairness deals.
She once said in an interview that she would never endorse a fairness brand. “I don’t think there is anything wrong with being fair, but it has become such an obsession in our country that it is all we look for in beauty.
Meanwhile, the actress herself shared her casting couch experience. 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.
Several actresses in the Indian film industry have been a victim of sexual harassment. 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.
Kalki Koechlin shares her casting couch experience
With feminism and women’s empowerment becoming the most-talked subjects, actresses have become more open about prevalent issues. With the MeToo movement encouraging several women to share their ordeal of sexual abuse at the workplace, the film industry is also no exception.
Recalling the casting couch experience, Kalki Koechlin said, “It was not a sexual proposition directly but indirectly. A producer wanted to go out on a date with me. I said no and he never got back. The film didn’t happen.”
She ran through sexual abuse in the past and also spoke about it several times. She further added, “I have undergone sexual abuse and I opened up about it first to my therapist and to my then partner. Later, during a conference that Rahul Bose was organising, I discussed it openly.”
The actress added that it was after ‘Dev D’ that someone had called her a ‘Russian Prostitute’. “It was after ‘Dev D’ that I read someone had said, ‘Where did they get this Russian prostitute from?’ I was like, hey I’m not Russian,” she added.