Issue 12
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4<br />
G-View<br />
GPLUS SEP 14 - SEP 20, 2013<br />
RAHUL CHANDA<br />
It is an indecent proposal and<br />
quid pro quo of the exploitative<br />
kind. The young, starry-eyed<br />
girls who dream of fame and glamour<br />
find themselves jolted to sordid<br />
reality when a producer, director or<br />
actor asks them ‘to come over and<br />
meet them alone’ and take things<br />
forward.<br />
Casting couch has remained a<br />
much-debated subject in the Hindi<br />
film industry, with some denying it<br />
outright while others claiming that<br />
the ugly truth is often swept under<br />
the rug. Many directors and producers<br />
have found themselves at<br />
the receiving end of accusations of<br />
having not just made the indecent<br />
proposal but in some cases, sexually<br />
exploiting the girl in question too.<br />
The jury is still out on how much<br />
truth is there in the accusations or<br />
the denials.<br />
In April 2013, the President of<br />
India gave assent to the Sexual Harassment<br />
of Women at Workplace<br />
(Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal)<br />
Act, 2013. The Act was enacted<br />
to provide protection against<br />
sexual harassment of women at<br />
workplaces and for the prevention<br />
and redressal of complaints of<br />
sexual harassment and for matters<br />
connected therewith or incidental<br />
thereto. No matter how many<br />
times the government tries reworking<br />
various laws to provide a secure<br />
environment to the women, the fact<br />
remains that females are almost<br />
always vulnerable anywhere in the<br />
country. No matter what the profession<br />
is, harassment and exploitation<br />
of women still exists.<br />
As the fashion, the glamour and<br />
the film industries are beckoning almost<br />
everyone these days, there has<br />
also been a rise in cases related to<br />
casting couches.<br />
Casting couch<br />
The casting couch, castingcouch<br />
syndrome or casting-couch<br />
mentality is a term which refers to<br />
the trading of sexual favours by an<br />
aspirant, apprentice employee or<br />
subordinate to a superior in return<br />
for entry into an occupation or for<br />
other career advancements within<br />
an organisation. The term “casting<br />
couch” originated in the motion<br />
picture industry, with specific<br />
reference to couches in offices that<br />
could be used for sexual activity between<br />
the casting directors or film<br />
producers and aspiring actresses<br />
or actors. It is not to be confused<br />
with the adult entertainment industry<br />
where such actions may be<br />
a prerequisite, although many pornographic<br />
films play on the casting<br />
couch theme and allude to similarities<br />
one may find in casting couch<br />
scenarios in the film industry.<br />
The term is now often used to<br />
refer to other industries besides entertainment,<br />
though careers which<br />
are highly desirable and traditionally<br />
difficult to break into, such as<br />
the movie, television and music industries,<br />
have been the subject of<br />
casting couch stories in popular<br />
culture. Such trading of favours is<br />
an abuse of power and can become<br />
a wider sex scandal if deemed newsworthy.<br />
Cases in Hindi<br />
film industry<br />
There are many examples when<br />
actors were exploited with promises<br />
that they will get an opportunity<br />
to act in Bollywood films. A typical<br />
“casting couch” case occurred<br />
Casting couch &<br />
Assamese films<br />
In the Assamese film industry circles, people always speak<br />
in hushed tones about the existence of casting couches. We<br />
tried to find out the truth behind it but soon discovered that<br />
no one is very comfortable speaking about the subject, for<br />
SEX<br />
the fear of being singled out or worse.<br />
“It is very tough for people to get a role these days. And after<br />
you get the role, one has to be always listening to the director and<br />
Identity<br />
the producer. Some producers are always keen to talk to the female<br />
actor and make indecent approaches. They purposefully<br />
witheld<br />
make the situation such that they get time to spend with the actor.<br />
The directors also feel that they are the kings and the actor will do<br />
whatever they say. I firmly believe that there are casting couches in<br />
the Assamese film industry and I also understand that people might<br />
ask why the females should allow such things to happen. But at times,<br />
the situation is uncontrollable and you also a worry about the family.<br />
People are also worried about their careers. It is not explainable but the situations<br />
are mostly unreported for various reasons.”<br />
in India in 2004, when actress Preeti<br />
Jain filed a police complaint alleging<br />
that film director Madhur<br />
Bhandarkar had sexually exploited<br />
her for many years and made false<br />
promises to cast her in a lead role<br />
in his next film. She stated that she<br />
was never offered any role in any of<br />
his films. According to Jain, Bhandarkar<br />
repeatedly had sex with her<br />
between 1999 and 2004 at Natraj<br />
Apartment at Yari Road, Hotel Seaside<br />
at Juhu and at Bhandarkar’s<br />
friend’s (Akbar) flat at Mount Mary<br />
Road, Bandra.<br />
In 2005, India TV’s India’s Most<br />
Wanted, an investigative TV show,<br />
caught Indian Idol host Aman Verma<br />
and long time Bollywood actor<br />
Shakti Kapoor in a “sting” operation<br />
and accused them of abusing<br />
their positions to force women to<br />
have sex with them. They even produced<br />
video evidence of Kapoor<br />
making advances to a planted girl,<br />
in which Kapoor tells the girl that<br />
superstars Aishwarya Rai, Rani<br />
Mukerji and Preity Zinta slept with<br />
people such as Subhash Ghai, Yash<br />
Chopra and Yash Johar to get where<br />
they were. Verma, Kapoor and most<br />
of the Bollywood industry have<br />
defended themselves, calling India<br />
TV’s claims unfounded and sensational<br />
and claimed that the video<br />
footage of Kapoor is misleading.<br />
In 2009, Indian actress Suchitra<br />
Krishnamoorthi reported an<br />
incident in her blog where she narrowly<br />
escaped sexual advances from<br />
a producer while casting for a film<br />
role.<br />
Payal Rohatgi had raised the<br />
spectre of sex-for-role bargain by<br />
accusing director Dibakar Banerjee<br />
of having asked her to take her<br />
top off when she auditioned for a<br />
role for his film Shanghai. Rohatgi<br />
claimed that she and Dibakar became<br />
friends over time and she was<br />
shocked when he allegedly made<br />
the indecent proposal. She said that<br />
she did not get the role in the film<br />
because she refused to submit to<br />
Banerjee’s demand. Banerjee, on the<br />
other hand, claims that Payal was<br />
not in a sound state of mind and<br />
he never made any such proposal.<br />
He admitted helping her in times of<br />
her personal crisis, but claimed that<br />
Payal was maligning him because<br />
she was rejected for the role.