Surveen Chawla, who will next be seen in Netflix’s upcoming series Mandala Murders, recently opened up about the time when she contemplated quitting the entertainment industry because it was “all about casting couch.” In the past, many actors have opened up about their unsavoury experiences where they were asked to provide sexual favours in exchange for a role in a film or a show and while the #MeToo movement in India did bring that discussion to the forefront, it did not put an end to the menace. In her interview, Surveen shared that she wanted to quit the business as casting couch was “trending.”
She shared with Siddharth Kannan on his YouTube channel, “There was a time when it was all about casting couch. It just felt dirty to even step out and I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this’. There was that phase. It was almost like it was trending.” She explained what she meant by trending and said, “Trending, of course, I am not talking about social media. Metaphorically. Symbolically. It was almost like it was trending.”
Surveen said that she lost many roles because she put her foot down and refused to engage in such compromises. “Everytime I would lose a part because I had the audacity to say no, or the audacity to just keep my ground in some way shape or form. But it was crazy. I felt like I have hit the end of the road. So that phase was like really tough. And I had to lay low and laze around and be like ‘I can’t do this, this is not what I was here for’ sort of a thing,” she shared.
In an earlier chat with Hauterrfly, Surveen opened up about her horrific experience with casting couch and shared, “I will tell you a tale about Mumbai’s Veera Desai Road only. After the meeting at his office cabin, he came to see me off at the gate, and this was after I got married. And the strange thing was that we talked about this in the meeting also, he asked me how it was going and what my husband did, and it was just us speaking inside his cabin because he had a big office.” She added, “So, when I came to the door to say bye, he leaned towards me trying to kiss, and I had to push him back. I was startled and asked him what he was doing, and I just walked off.”
