Neena Gupta talks about casting couch in showbiz

Bollywood actress Neena Gupta not long ago launched her autobiography Sach Kahun Toh and talked about various chapters of her life, both professional and personal. Neena Gupta, who has been in the movie industry for such a long time, revealed in her book that casting couch is a real thing in showbiz but clarified that she has never come across it. In a paragraph from her book Such Kahun Toh, Neena wrote: "Now, does the casting couch exist, and have I ever had to sit (sleep? sounds uncomfortable) on it? The answer is: Yes, it exists, and no I have never experienced it. I always saw it for what it was - a sexual favour offered in exchange for something that might not be what you imagined."

However, the veteran actress talked about an incident in her book when a producer looked for sexual favours in exchange for a role in a movie but she turned down his advance.

Here's the paragraph from her autobiography: "One day, a friend told me to go visit a producer who was a big shot in the south. He was visiting for a few days and was staying at the Sun-n-Sand hotel. When I got to the hotel, I called the producer from a phone in the lobby. 'Yes, yes, I've been expecting you,' he said. 'Come on upstairs.'

'So, what's my role, sir?' I asked him finally when he paused to catch his breath. 'The heroine's friend,' he said. When he explained it to me, it seemed like a very small part. 'Ok ... I have to go now, sir' I said, 'My friends are waiting for me.'....'Go? Where? he asked. He seemed genuinely shocked. Aren't you going to spend the night here?'"

While talking to NDTV recently, the actress revaluated the situation in retrospect and stated that she could have been more careful and termed her younger self as somewhat "desperate" for work: "You have to be careful. It's my stupidity, I should have called him down in the lobby and talked. Why would I go to somebody's room late in the evening to talk? Because, I was desperate may be that if I call him downstairs, he may feel bad. But one shouldn't do this. If I would have called him to the lobby, it wouldn't have happened. Maybe it would have but I would have felt much safer," The actress said in her interview.

The 62 year old actress also gave out some piece of advice to newcomers in the industry and said, "Here, nobody forces you to sleep with them. It's you, who has to decide how much you want to compromise. It's very simple - if you say no, there are 10 other girls willing to say yes. It's not necessary that you sleep with them and they'll give you a role. They might give you a small role, somewhere in the crowd. This is business. It is your choice."

With respect to work Neena Gupta was last seen in Sardar Ka Grandson and has sports drama '83 lined up for release.

Also Read: Neena Gupta reveals some shocking truth about her mother, says 'tried to end her life'