Aspiring actors who aim to make it big in the movies often encounter many obstacles on their way but one of the worst things that they have to encounter is the presence of casting couch. People who claim to have decision making power in the movies exploit aspiring actors for sexual favours, and turn the industry into an inhospitable environment for those who are still trying to make their way. Actors who come from film families are often saved from such experiences because they know who to trust but recently, Johny Lever’s daughter, Jamie, shared that she was once asked to strip on a video call in the name of an audition by someone posing to be a director of an international film. The experience left her “petrified” as she had never faced something like this in Bollywood.
Jamie shared that while she had heard people’s experiences of casting couch, she believed that her father’s presence in the industry was a “big blessing.” She then recalled that in the early phase of her career, she did not have a manager and was representing herself. Since her contact details were widely circulated to a lot of casting agents, she once got a call from someone who was pretending to cast for an international film. “They asked if I would like to audition. Such opportunities are a big deal for us so I hopped on to it and said yes,” she shared with Zoom.
Jamie was told that the audition would be over a video call where she would be speaking to the director. “They said we won’t be sharing a script because we want some improvisation in the audition,” she recalled and said that soon after, she got a link for the meeting. As Jamie clicked on the link, her video was on, but the person on the other side claimed that they were in transit and thus, they couldn’t switch on their video. “The person who was posing as a director said, ‘I am in transit so I can’t switch on my video but this is an international film we are casting for and you fit well in the part. But there are a few things that we want to test’,” she recalled.
Jamie was told that she was auditioning for a “bold character” and that she wouldn’t be required to do any comedy, unlike the many roles that she was being offered at that time. When she asked what she was required to do, the person on the other end asked her to make up a scene where she had to “woo” an older man and suggested that she should strip. “They said that you imagine there is a 50-year-old man in front of you and you are trying to woo this man, and eventually, there is an intimate scene. I said, ‘I am not very comfortable with this. When there is a script I will follow that’. They said, ‘There is no script, it is improvised so if you want to strip or if you want to say something or if you want to do something else, feel free to do that,” she recalled.
As soon as she heard about stripping, Jamie’s guards went up. “I said ‘Strip? No one told me about that. I am not comfortable doing this’. They said, ‘But this is a very big project and we really want to cast you, it’s a big opportunity for you’. I said, ‘But sir, if you are expecting me to strip on this video call, I am not comfortable doing this and I wasn’t informed about it’. Then I said, ‘I don’t even feel comfortable talking to you right now’ and then I quickly switched off the video.”
As soon as she hung up, Jamie realised that this could be a “big scam.” “That’s when I realised that this could be such a big scam because had I done anything innocently, they could have made a video out of it, they could have harassed me and a lot of other things could have happened,” she said and added that it was a blessing that she had the presence of mind to get out when she did. The experience left Jamie “petrified” as she had never faced anything like this in Mumbai. What shocked her even more that those who were trying to scam her must have been aware that she was Johny Lever’s daughter and still dared to trap her. “Even thinking about it is scary,” she said.
