While Hollywood has blown apart the lid on the casting couch syndrome, in Bollywood the malpractice remains prevalent, although newcomers only speak about it in hushed whispers.There is this young powerful producer with a beautiful wife . He "auditions young actresses, right under his wife's nose.
"The wife knows what he is doing, the young upcoming girls who sleep with him to get roles know what he is doing...He has a simple deal with all the aspiring actresses.Iss haath se do aur uss haath se lo(give and take). The modus operandi has been in place for many years now. No one has spoken about his carnal carnival as yet.
We hear from personnel within this roving-eyed groping-limbed producer's organization that he has decided to be "very careful very discreet after theWeinstein expose.Whether this means he won't ask strugglers for sexual favours or simply that he would un-install the CCTC cameras in his luxurious office(which includes a plush double bed) is not known.
Then there is the swach' superstar who poses with his intelligent and beautiful wife as the face of New India but in actuality he has his little furtive flings and one-night stands with his very young co-stars right under his no-nonsense wife's nose.
"Oh, she knows about his flings. She chooses to ignore them, says a source.
Years ago way back in the 1970s an actor-director known to play patriotic protagonists was notorious for hitting on his heroines.He would get drunk and dial his heroines in the middle of the night.
Recalled Hema Malini, "I thought it was only me. Then I mentioned it to another actress and she said she also got his calls and she said she spoke to another actress who has worked with him. She too got the same calls.
Then there was the movie moghul known to discover heroines who went on to be top actresses of their time. He wanted to...errr...spend quality time with all of them. Most of them fled from his field of activity after being launched by him.
Anupamaa
Naagin 7
Health and Fitness
16