“He Leaned In To Kiss…”: Surveen Chawla Opens Up About Facing Casting Couch Multiple Times

The brutal realities of the entertainment industry have once again been brought to light by actor Surveen Chawla. She talked about her own career-long encounters with abusive behaviour and the casting couch. Chawla recently talked about some unsettling experiences, including one that happened after her marriage, in an interview with The Male Feminist. Recalling a particular incident, she said that after the meeting ended with a director, he tried to kiss her. She was shocked when the director leaned in for a kiss. She said that this happened after she got married.

Surveen Chawla said, “I have encountered the casting couch situation multiple times. I will tell you about an incident that happened on Mumbai’s Veera Desai Road. After the meeting at his office cabin, he came to see me off at the gate. This was after I got married. And the strange thing was that we talked about this in the meeting, also. He asked me how things were going and what my husband had done, but since he had an enormous workspace, we were talking within his cabin. I had to push him away as he tried to kiss me as I approached the door to say goodbye. I was startled and asked him what he was doing, and I just walked off.”

This wasn't a single instance, the actor highlighted. A director who couldn't speak Hindi or English used a friend as an interpreter to explain his demand that she sleep with him during the shoot, which she described as another really disturbing incident from the South Indian film industry.

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She also shared how she was physically objectified for her appearance. She shared how she was asked by South Indian Industry people asked her to gain weight. She said, “Yes, I was told you are too thin, slim, because you won't have bosoms. Kuch hilega nahi (Nothing will jiggle), nothing will bounce. Now it's done a little more sophisticatedly. In my time, they were not so sophisticated. They told me to my face, so I gave it back to their face.”

In a previous interview with RJ Siddharth Kannan, Surveen Chawla discussed experiencing body shaming. She said women in the field are frequently subjected to unjust criticism and depressed self-esteem due to their appearance.

Chawla's career is still thriving in spite of these obstacles. After appearing in "Criminal Justice Season 4," she is currently preparing for the highly anticipated "Rana Naidu Season 2" on Netflix, in which she co-stars with Rana Daggubati.