The Casting Couch Does NOT Exist!
It's more like the working couch

by Seema Rahmani
Actress SINS; writer of published book, Euphoria, A Journey Unravels
 
 

Recently, post Shakti Kapoors inauguration of the Bollywood lechers issue, I listened to several well known Bollywood gentlemen discuss the casting couch situation in our movie industry. What moved and surprised me about this conversation is one particular director producer who vehemently objected to the existence of any such thing. Out of respect for his privacy, Ill refer to this morally intact person as Y.

The casting couch exists for tarts, Y argued, not for actresses.

Realizing what he is trying to say, and in the defense of tarts, I must, as an actress, ask, When exactly is a woman an actress and not a tart?

We may label the less talented and/or desperate-to-do-most-anything-for-a-break as tarts, but then what, as a creative industry, are we doing to raise the standard of professionalism among actors? What are we doing to raise the bar for qualifying to be an actor? How is it that every slightly popular model or recent beauty pageant winner who merely breathes in the direction of Bollywood is automatically called an actor and showered with offers, as if the only criteria for being an actress or actor is approved good looks while the ability to act is an add-on accessory that can be purchased from some weekly crash course? This kind of fluffy selection of actors is unheard of in any respected movie industry worldwide. (Poor Stanislovski, a guru and lover of the art of acting, wasted his entire life studying and teaching acting as the intelligent analysis of the human psyche when all that is necessary to be a working actor is to be a model or somebody's relative or main squeeze!)  I imagine any improvement involves a major attitude adjustment where respect toward the profession and respect toward the art become key factors for it is this respect that lies at the core of professionalism. If after years of industry presence, some of us can deny that lechery is even present, forget prevalent, then where is the hope for accountability, prevention, protection of artists, and thus, progress?!

Now returning to Y. I have been in this industry eleven years, he continues. No actress has ever slept with a director in order to get work.  I see the conviction in his eyes and I like the guy simply because of his heartfelt need for a clean Bollywood. The kind of clean Bollywood Shakti Kapoor's testimony disrupts. You have only been here two years. Are you going to tell me you know better than I do?, he growls at me. No, Im not going to tell you that. Im a woman. You are not. That gives me insight you may not have, I respond. I have women friends who would tell me, he retorts. They may not feel the need to, I say. And frankly, some may not want to. Others may not have stories to tell. That doesn't mean you discount the ones who do have stories just because they don't fall in the friends category. But I still like the guy. His innocence is truly amazing, refreshing just what I needed to instill some faith and hope after the lechers I encountered recently. A director is someone who is in love with his movie, he continues, WHY would he damage it by casting someone simply because she slept with him?!! Please, don't make it so boring!, he argues. I agree on two counts and unfortunately disagree on numerous. I agree that the casting couch leaves the question WHY, for a creative heavens sake, be so juvenile, be so boring? And I agree that a director is supposed to be someone who is in love with the movie he wishes to make. But here is where reality bites. Juvenile behavior is apparently not boring to many. And many directors are no longer making movies for the love of art or poignant storytelling. They are making movies for name, fame and the power to call the shots (and I don't mean just on a set.) This is not an accusation, just a natural fact. Natural, that is, until something goes terribly wrong

Relative power falls in the hands of certain workaholics who made less than necessary time for personal unresolved issues in life and are now psychologically immature, emotionally hungry and sexually reacting. And some are in positions of [commercial] power in our industry, touting labels like director, producer, executive producer, distributor, and so on. People who think their selves to be KINGS, albeit of their myopic worlds. And those who come to them for opportunities are to do what is expected of them in gratitude. This is often an unspoken expectation that victimizes the desperate or otherwise costs the strong willed some work.

When Y challenged the sleaze theory by listing [whom he called] the current top ten directors as prime examples of professionalism, I said nothing. I didn't need to. He claimed to know them personally but two other men in our gathering vouched for the questionable ways of four out of ten. I stayed quiet because I tend to speak out of personal experience and I personally knew only one of the ten an undoubtedly clean one. But what Y wasn't factoring in is that over 90 percent of the actresses in the industry are working outside the top ten list. And here the scum is galore. They fall in the has been, wanna be and still trying to be categories. And many of the top ten, including Y, would most likely be too professionally busy to be involved in this reality. But maybe its time to get involved time to change things for the betterment of all.
 

Until two weeks ago, I had a set response to the oft asked question, Have you had any sleazy industry experiences? Id say, That wont happen with me. I don't give out that kind of energy so people know better than to even broach the subject. Then coincidentally, (there are no coincidences) just around the time Shakti was pouring his hormones out, I was getting taste after taste of how my professional energy has nothing to do with how people behave. A lech is a lech is a lech. You could know them for six months of getting your script produced through their company which identifies itself as being affiliated with a well known name, such as Shekhar Kapoor, and you could be just around the corner from signing a respected Hollywood actor for the project when suddenly WHAM!, the guy running the show, who has been decent and straight enough to be considered a friend by now, SUDDENLY starts groping you and saying I want to go to sleep with you and wake up next to you. And when you get over your shock and discomfort and tell him what was till then seemingly obvious to both of you, Dude, not interested please!, the entire project is over and done with. In spite of how dear this project has been to me, somehow doing away with awkward emotional and disgusting physical demands gave me immediate and immense relief, and was worth costing me the production of my art. I have faith that all that should, will happen without compromise.

One question I needed answered after this lech experiences is, how in the world does a producer, who is publicly known to be professionally involved in a project, face his colleagues with dignity, knowing that it is soon to become public knowledge that important creative work has been sacrificed because he involved himself personally and the woman remained professional, which then in turn made him decide to pull out. And the response I got from a man, who understands the workings, is They'll understand. They are all men they'll understand. I beg to differ. They are not men they are lost. The resultant tragedy: Great visionaries go blind when their matter decides their mind.

So then Shakti Kapoor's style aside, sexual demands (with or without emotions) sometimes take you by surprise and some other times creep up on you slowly. But the reason this is an issue is simply because there is a time and place for psychological dysfunction and for functionality leave the former at home or at a friends home. Don't bring it to work. And that will be the end of stories.

The point here isn't who is a tart versus an actress. The point here isn't (as one man suggested) that the working couch works because of some hypnotic effect the all-powerful woman has over bicharey men who cant help but get innocently leered into a sexual trap! And it isn't even about who decides the skirt must drop, the man or the woman. The point here is that skirt dropping is an activity that is only appropriate in ones personal life or a relevant professional set-up, like prostitution. And the fact that it is even a marketable commodity in another career is what needs to be changed. Here, in the movie industry, sexual relations cannot be an option from any point of view in exchange for work. And anyone having to deal with such a proposition, whether an actor, a writer, a director, a producer, or a distributor should be able to report it and see it penalized. And that sexual advances are being made in so many lines of work (as often suggested) does not justify or discount the problem. Anyone who suggests a personal compromise for work must be held accountable and an official support system that enforces such standards of discipline is what will pave the way for creating a respectable movie industry. Those not guilty of any foul play need not scream breach of privacy and get scared because that is a dead give-away to questioning your innocence.

It might serve a lot of unwilling women well to do away with their benefit-of-the-doubt tendency and suspect foul play from the get-go, but its a terrible way to live. I imagine the solution is, don't treat others like the deciders of your fate and success in life. They aren't. You are. Be straight-forward and strong. Nobody is more important than you are to your self. Have faith that we live in a world in which the highest of ALL powers does not want us to compromise and be untrue to what we believe in. This of course is relevant to those who do not wish to sleep around for work. As for those who wish to, I am sure it will not be difficult currently to find the filmmakers who value such efforts, and I sincerely say with no judgment passed may the force be with you too.

It's choice not chance that determines your destiny. ~ Jean Nidetech
Recommended reading for aspiring actors and actresses:
An Actor Prepares, Building A Character, Creating a Role three book series authored by Stanislovski.

Relatd link:-
Poor Shakti Kapoor,  getting hanged for an urge to fornicate