Ankita Lokhande Reveals Casting Couch Experience

“Pavitra Rishta” fame Ankita Lokhande recently revealed her casting couch experience in an interview. She said that the producer offered her to do a South Indian film only if she agreed to “sleep with him.” 

Ankita shared that after giving an audition, she received a call from the producer saying, ‘You’ve been selected.’ Following the call, she went to meet a filmmaker at a hotel in Mumbai. They asked me to come and sign, and I told them, ‘Yes, I’ll come to the hotel. I even told my mother excitedly, ‘I am going and I will get the signing amount’,” narrated Ankita.

She doubted getting the role so easily, but when she arrived at the hotel, they called her inside. They asked Ankita to compromise when she was19 and desperate to become an actor. She revealed that they said,” You have to compromise.’ She added, “I was just 19 at that time. At that time, it was like ‘I want to be a heroine, and that phase was on.’ I played smart because I did not want to hear that I had to sleep with someone. So I asked them, ‘What kind of a compromise? They asked, ‘Do you want to go to a party with our producers and financiers?’ I handled it smartly to avoid hearing what they were trying to say.

Someone told her, ‘You have to sleep with the producer. After hearing it, Ankita got up and, before leaving, told the person, “I don’t think your producer needs a talent; they need a girl to sleep with, and I am not that one.”

Ankita handled the situation very well, refused to do what she was asked to, and walked out. She further decided not to work in the film industry and was happy with only working in the television industry.

Ankita realised that she could not let anyone ask her to sleep with them to get work done. The actress felt low and questioned herself, “How could someone say this to her?” That day, she decided she would not do any films because they were dirty, and she felt more than happy to work in the television industry. Ankita revealed that she got the opportunity from “Pavitra Rishta,” and she happily took it.

But in Kangana Ranaut‘s 2019 film Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, Ankita made her Bollywood debut. She starred in Baaghi 3 as well, and Swatantra Veer Savarkar will be her next film.