Renowned actress Suchitra Krishnamoorthi recently shared her harrowing experience with the casting couch in the entertainment industry. She vividly recalled a distressing incident where she met a prominent producer-director in a hotel room, as it was customary for meetings to take place in hotels at that time. The actress revealed that during the encounter, the producer-director indirectly hinted that she should spend the night with him. Overwhelmed with emotions, Suchitra picked up her belongings and hastily left the room, feeling deeply affected by the encounter.
During a conversation with Siddharth Kannan, Suchitra reminisced about the meeting with the producer-director, who asked her about her relationship with her parents. She responded, “We were meeting in a hotel, and in those days, many meetings happened in hotels. It was quite common. I said, ‘I am very close to my father.'” The producer’s subsequent comment left her shocked and unsettled. “He said, ‘Very nice, then call your father and tell him that I will drop you back home tomorrow morning,'” Suchitra recalled.
The actress confessed that she was on the brink of tears. In that moment, she quickly gathered her belongings and fled from the room. Initially, she struggled to comprehend the implications of the producer’s intentions. “It takes you a while to process. Then I was like, it’s 4-5 pm right now. What am I going to do with him until tomorrow morning? Then it started striking me what he is probably intending,” shared Suchitra, shedding light on the prevalence of such incidents in the industry during that period.
Suchitra Krishnamoorthi, who gained fame after her appearance in the popular 1994 film Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa alongside Shah Rukh Khan, began her career with the TV series Chunauti. She was previously married to filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, but they divorced in 2007 after 12 years of marriage. In the interview, Suchitra also revealed that her parents, particularly her mother, were opposed to their union.
“My mother sat at my feet and begged me not to proceed with this marriage. They advised me to have an affair and dismiss the idea. But I was certain that this is what I wanted and it was a decision I made for myself,” she shared, reflecting on the challenges she faced in her personal life.