New Delhi: Actor Mita Vashisht recently opened up about a casting couch experience with a Telugu filmmaker. The actor shared that one time when she was attending the Chennai Film Festival, a filmmaker tried to obstruct her from leaving the room and then tried to chase her outside as she made her way back safely.


Mita Vashisht on her casting couch experience


In an interview with The Lallantop, Mita was asked if she ever had a casting couch experience, to which she replied in the affirmative. Without mentioning anyone's names, she recounted an incident saying, "A Telugu director offered me the lead role in his film. The actress he’d worked with on his previous film had won a National Award. He offered me the lead role, and said that I will have to live with him for two months. For a second, I thought that his English was weak, and that he maybe meant that I would have to visit his house to prepare.”


Mita added, "He sensed that I hadn’t understood, so he repeated himself. ‘You understand when I say live with me?’ This was when I had two films in the Chennai Film Festival, and my friends – Kumar Shahani and Khalid Mohammed – were all in the next room.” 


Mita added that when she turned down the proposition and tried to leave, the filmmaker blocked the door. Mita said that she started laughing and this threw him off, and this helped her in escaping and making her way back to her friends.


If she faced similar experiences...


She was also asked if this was an isolated incident or if she had similar experiences. Mita added that she made it clear to her directors that she was not going to sleep with them and that some of them ended up casting her anyway. "People respect you. After you’ve told them clearly and they still keep you in the film, they don’t mess with you,” she said.