Fatima Sana Shaikh got her big break with her debut in Aamir Khan’s blockbuster sports biopic, ‘Dangal.’ While the role amassed her immense fame, the actress reached there after crossing several hurdles. In her recent interview, the ‘Ludo’ actress opened up about her early days trying to secure roles. She also shared her casting couch experience in the South.
During her conversation with Bollywood Bubble, Fatima Sana Shaikh recounted the experience. She said, “He asked me, ‘You will be ready to do everything, right?’ I told him that I will be working hard and will do what is required for the role, but he kept saying that and I played dumb because I wanted to see how low can he get.” Moreover, the actress also shared another disturbing incident from Hyderabad. She wanted to secure a role in a film which could be a stepping stone to her Bollywood debut. However, she revealed that ‘small producers’ openly talked about the casting couch.
She said, “We were in a room, and the producers would talk about it very openly, giving indications that you have to meet people. They wouldn’t say it outright, but it was clear what they meant. However, not everyone is like that.”
Recounting her earlier days, the actress said how some casting directors used to take a cut from the struggling actors’ pay. “Even if we were at the audition through word-of-mouth, the casting director would ask us to write down our references. That means you have to give 15 percent of your payment to them, despite not knowing them at all.”
She added, “Known casting directors won’t do that; only fraud people would. Of course, Mukesh Chhabra and Anmol Ahuja don’t do that. But there are shady individuals who take advantage of young, struggling actors who are new to the city and don’t know much.”
Fatima’s next is Anurag Basu’s multi-starrer ‘Metro… In Dino.’
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