Mumbai Isha Koppikar has been a popular actress. She has worked in Hindi films along with South. After South, she made her Bollywood debut with the film ‘Fiza’. She was seen opposite Hrithik Roshan in the film. Years later, Isha has now revealed that at the age of 18, she had to face the dreaded casting couch. Isha played lead and important roles in Bollywood films like ‘Darna Mana Hai’, ‘Pinjar’, ‘LOC Kargil’, ‘Krishna Cottage’ and ‘Don’. Apart from this, she did superhit dance numbers like ‘Ishq Samundar’ from ‘Kaante’ and ‘Khalsa’ from ‘Company’.
Isha Koppikar recently revealed in an interview to Siddharth Kannan that during the initial days in the industry, she had to face casting couch. While saying this, Isha’s eyes got filled with tears. She said, “It never happened in the industry that an actress could do anything. Heroes and actors used to decide. You must have heard about MeToo, and if there were values in the industry, then this would hardly have happened.”
Isha Koppikpar said, “Many actresses of my time left the industry. I was 18 years old when a secretary and an actor called me for casting couch. They told me that to get work, you have to be ‘friendly’ with the actors. I am very friendly, but what does ‘friendly’ mean? I am so friendly that Ekta Kapoor once told me to have a little attitude.”
Isha Koppikar also mentioned an incident when an A-list actor asked her to meet him alone. She said, “When I was 23 years old, an actor asked me to meet him alone, without my driver or anyone else, because there were rumours about him having a relationship with another actress. He said, ‘There are already controversies about me, and such people spread rumours.’ But I refused and told him that I cannot come alone. He was an A-list actor of the Hindi film industry.”
Isha Koppikar also recalled the days when secretaries of actors and directors would touch her inappropriately. She said, “They wouldn’t just come and touch you inappropriately; they would squeeze your hand and say, ‘Heroes ke saath bahut dosti karni padega’ (You have to make friends with heroes). In a dirty way.”
Tag: Bollywood Actress, Bollywood News
first published : June 21, 2024, 07:57 IST
