Tisca Zareen Chopra is a popular Indian actress, author and film producer who has featured in as many as 45 movies, primarily in Bollywood. Taare Zameen Par actor is considered one of Bollywood’s most respected stars.
Meanwhile, in an interaction with Kommune India, Chopra opened up her experience of Bollywood’s infamous ‘casting couch’.
“I’m going to call him RP – for Reptile,” she said explaining he wanted to meet her for the casting of a film which was quite an “extravaganza”.
At his office, RP told Chopra, “you need to learn how to walk in heels, you need a manicure and you need to do a spa for your hair. And you need to learn how to ooze.”
“They said, but you know, agreeing to do a film with him is like agreeing to be his pet squeeze for the duration of the shoot. Are you okay with that?”
Chopra was shocked by the information, when a friend notifed her about her experience with a Tamil director who wanted to take her location-hunting so he wanted “the script to penetrate every inch of her body.”
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.