Loaded with glamour and glitz, Bollwood also have the tradition of casting couch for a long time but it has picked up recently. That’s because the youth of today wants a break at any cost, and usually they have to pay it with their bodies.
The incident is fairly new. Newcomer actor Yuvraj Parashar alleged that director Onir called him home by luring him with a role, forced him to drink and took him to his bedroom on the pretext of watching “Dunno y…” and forced himself upon him while the movie was on. In his defense, Onir said he is so short and thin, while Yuvraj is well-built, so how could have Onir forced himself upon him. The incident is everything the underbelly of Bollywood is made of.
Shiney Ahuja may be out of prison but good luck still hasn’t come near. The filmmakers of movies starring Shiney are dicey about the move ahead. For now Shiney has only four movies – “Silver cut”, “Accident”, “Har pal” and “Take two”. “Silver cut” is a Hollywood venture and the movie was supposed to be shot by the end of last year. More than half of accident has been shot. Charged with rape, Shiney hasn’t faced the camera since, while there are several examples of it, where incidents of assault and rape die a painful death beneath layers of make-up, glitz and glamour. Actresses such as Bipasha Basu, Manisha Koirala, Tabu, Mahima Choudhury, Mallika Sheravat, Meghna Naidu and Celina Jaitely have, time and again, tried to unravel the truth. While some did a roundabout, some maintained silence keeping their career in mind. Take Bipasha Basu, for instance, who had gone to New Jersey for India Day Parade. Two sponsors there started to misbehave with her while in the car. There was a lot of furor over it but later Bipasha chose not to talk about it.
Gathering a lot of popularity on the small screen, Rakhi Sawant had once charged Daler Mehendi’s brother Mika of forcing a kiss on her. The incident was witnessed by all at a restaurant in Mumbai where Mika’s birthday was being celebrated. To wish him, Rakhi kissed his cheek but Mika couldn’t control himself and forced a kiss on her lips. Rakhi said, “He not only kissed my lips but also bit them twice. My earring broke in the tussle.” A few months ago, actress Nitu Chandra was shooting with Krishika Gupta, and was wearing a bikini. After the shooting a few people there molested her. Krishika says, “I was wearing a bath robe over my bikini. Some people tried to take it away while some held my arms. I somehow managed to get out of there.” And with that comes the offer of casting couch. Former actress Mamta Kulkarni had directly pointed a finger at filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi during the shooting of “China gate”, saying he had made him an offer for casting couch. Not just that, she said he had threatened her that if she didn’t comply, he would kick her out of the movie. The matter was shelved with help of financer for the movie Bharatbhai Shah. But Mamta was nowhere to be seen after the incident. Manisha Koirala and Mahima Choudhury talked about Subhash Ghai’s similar offers. But their quotes were also underplayed cleverly. Mahima says, “Why dig up old problems. But it is true that those girls who look for shortcuts to success get into the casting couch rigmarole.”
This is not from too long ago. A few years ago, newcomer actress Preeti Jain had opened her mouth against famous director Madhur Bhandarkar in the same context. She said he promised her an offer in his movie and used her physically for months. Angry with the charges, Madhur had lashed back. But the scandal got buried with time. So much has been said about Shiney’s case. Several years ago, Aditya’s girl friend Pooja Bedi had caught him a similar situation. The 15-year-old maid has talked about the incident. Clearly speaking after the incident, Pooja had said, “Maybe Aditya didn’t rape her and the girl incited him. But since she is a minor, it will be considered a rape.” Obviously their relationship didn’t last after this. And since no police complain was filed against Aditya, the matter was shelved after compensation.
The truth is there are several such incidents that have happened in Bollywood. In the 1980s, Rajesh Khanna had allegedly tried to force himself on newcomer actress Sahiba, who was just 15 years old. She worked in a few B-grade movies and was soon out of the industry. Tabu had made similar allegation about Jackie Shroff once. Jackie was all set to flirt with Tabu at Danny’s house and she had somehow managed to run away. So if Shiney’s incident has come into the news, it is actually nothing new. The only difference is other escaped while Shiney was caught. It’s not just women, people like Sonu Nigma have faced similar problems. Four years ago, he alleged that an English reporter that the person had made him some lewd offers through SMS. Not just Sonu, several actors and models, on the condition of anonymity, confessed that they have got several such homosexual offers from directors and producers. Take Sonu Sood, for instance. He told a reporter, “A model coordinator made such offers to me several times. Ultimately I had to tell him in stern words that I wasn’t accepting his offer.” Another actor Ashish Choudhury has agreed that the fashion industry is replete with homosexuals. Actor Sahil Chaddha talks about an incident that happened with him, when he was offered to spend a night with a popular man and was later offered a hero’s role as well.
