Skip to content 
Search

Latest Stories

How bogus Bollywood offers have blighted new film talent

How bogus Bollywood offers have blighted new film talent

OUTSIDERS ARE MADE TO WAIT LONG PERIODS FOR PROJECTS THAT NEVER MATERIALISE

A recent social media post by TV personality Asim Riaz exposed a dark truth about Bollywood.


The popular Indian model revealed he was offered a high-profile film and his name had been used to hype the project for a year, but then it finally started without him. The rising star expressed how much pressure and anxiety the whole situation had caused him. It also wasted 12 months he could have used to find himself an alternative and viable movie project.

He may have been one of the few to speak out against this ‘fake promise’ issue, but, definitely, isn’t the first young talent to have their spirit crushed by this decidedly dark practice that has secretly being going on for a long time now in Hindi cinema. It has been weaponised mainly against outsiders in various ways.

The most well-known is the notorious casting couch process, which hinges on the promise of giving young hopefuls work in exchange for sexual favours. While they wait for a project that will never arrive, these victims, mostly females, are sexually exploited by notorious people working within the film industry.

Of course, there are men and women who have got projects through the casting couch, but most are given fake hope and disregarded. And yes, there are many male victims too of this casting couch process. Ayushmann Khurrana had revealed that during the early days of his career he had refused a casting director’s offer of a lead role in exchange for exposing his genitals. Radhika Apte is one of many actresses who has spoken about receiving indecent proposals in exchange for a role.

Even though many have spoken about it, there has been no move by the industry to combat it. This casting couch process promising work that never materialises has happened to some more established names too.

What has never been spoken about is careers of newcomers getting actively sabotaged with fake offers. One way to get a fast-emerging rival’s wings clipped is to get someone established to offer them that big project and make them wait for it. This will almost exclusively happen to outsiders, who have carved out their own path. While they prepare and wait for that dream project that is never going to get made, they lose out on films that could transform their career. Or in some cases, that potentially dream film they rejected is given to someone else, while they wait for a project that will never get made.

First Lead inset Sushant Singh Rajput credit SUJIT JAISWALAFPGetty Images Sushant Singh Rajput (Sujit Jaiswal /AFP/Getty Images)

It has been widely spoken about of how late actor Sushant Singh Rajput was offered the chance of acting in his first international project Paani, directed by Shekhar Kapur, and persuaded to give up the chance of working with top director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. While he waited for a project that was eventually shelved, Ranveer Singh had his career and life transformed by stepping into Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, for which Sushant was the first choice.

There were other projects Sushant prepared for like a space movie, but that too didn’t happen, and it had a damaging effect on a promising career and his mental health. This has happened to many outsiders across the years on different levels.

Talented actor Vikrant Massey had said he lost out on two films after preparing for them and found out days before he was due to start work, when he opened a newspaper, to realise it was being shot with someone else.

Priyanka Chopra revealed early in her career she was ousted from films promised to her because her leading men were keen to cast their own girlfriends. Ultimately, she was one of the lucky ones because the fake promises and being ousted from projects didn’t stop her from becoming a global star.

It’s not just actors who are affected by this practice. There have been many incidents of singers, musicians, writers, and technicians promised work that didn’t materialise. In some cases, writers would later find their work had been stolen.

Then there are other times when producers or directors just don’t have the financing, but will keep creative people hanging on with false promises because they don’t want to lose that plum project. They ultimately waste valuable time of the new talent.

On a deeper level, giving fake promises is a form of coercive control. While that person is waiting, whether a newcomer or a more established name, the one making fake promises will have some control over them and use that, either for sexual favours or to get publicity and open doors. It is mostly outsiders who end up suffering from this tortuous process of a ‘fake yes’.

As Riaz had pointed out, this affected his mental health, and he is not alone. Many have got disheartened and quit. In some extreme cases, unknowns have committed suicide.

Only those who have been at the receiving end of what have essentially been lies know how painful this practice can be. Unfortunately, it won’t end soon, and more exciting newcomers will have their time wasted, with that fake promise that will not materialise.

More For You

One year on, Starmer still has no story — but plenty of regrets

Sir Keir Starmer

Getty Images

One year on, Starmer still has no story — but plenty of regrets

Do not expect any parties in Downing Street to celebrate the government’s first birthday on Friday (4). After a rocky year, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer had more than a few regrets when giving interviews about his first year in office.

He explained that he chose the wrong chief of staff. That his opening economic narrative was too gloomy. That choosing the winter fuel allowance as a symbol of fiscal responsibility backfired. Starmer ‘deeply regretted’ the speech he gave to launch his immigration white paper, from which only the phrase ‘island of strangers’ cut through. Can any previous political leader have been quite so self-critical of their own record in real time?

Keep ReadingShow less
starmer-bangladesh-migration
Sir Keir Starmer
Getty Images

Comment: Can Starmer turn Windrush promises into policy?

Anniversaries can catalyse action. The government appointed the first Windrush Commissioner last week, shortly before Windrush Day, this year marking the 77th anniversary of the ship’s arrival in Britain.

The Windrush generation came to Britain believing what the law said – that they were British subjects, with equal rights in the mother country. But they were to discover a different reality – not just in the 1950s, but in this century too. It is five years since Wendy Williams proposed this external oversight in her review of the lessons of the Windrush scandal. The delay has damaged confidence in the compensation scheme. Williams’ proposal had been for a broader Migrants Commissioner role, since the change needed in Home Office culture went beyond the treatment of the Windrush generation itself.

Keep ReadingShow less
Eye Spy: Top stories from the world of entertainment

Ed Sheeran and Arijit Singh

Eye Spy: Top stories from the world of entertainment

Ed Sheeran and Arijit Singh’s ‘Sapphire’ collaboration misses the mark

The song everyone is talking about this month is Sapphire – Ed Sheeran’s collaboration with Arijit Singh. But instead of a true duet, Arijit takes more of a backing role to the British pop superstar, which is a shame, considering he is the most followed artist on Spotify. The Indian superstar deserved a stronger presence on the otherwise catchy track. On the positive side, Sapphire may inspire more international artists to incorporate Indian elements into their music. But going forward, any major Indian names involved in global collaborations should insist on equal billing, rather than letting western stars ride on their popularity.

  Ed Sheeran and Arijit Singh

Keep ReadingShow less
If ayatollahs fall, who will run Teheran next?

Portraits of Iranian military generals and nuclear scientists, killed in Israel’s last Friday (13) attack, are seen above a road, as heavy smoke rises from an oil refinery in southern Teheran hit in an overnight Israeli strike last Sunday (15)

If ayatollahs fall, who will run Teheran next?

THERE is one question to which none of us has the answer: if the ayatollahs are toppled, who will take over in Teheran?

I am surprised that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, has lasted as long as he has. He is 86, and would achieve immortality as a “martyr” in the eyes of regime supporters if the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, succeeded in assassinating him. This was apparently Netanyahu’s plan, though he was apparently dissuaded by US president Donald Trump from going ahead with the killing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Comment: Talking about race isn’t racist – ignoring it helped grooming gangs thrive

A woman poses with a sign as members of the public queue to enter a council meeting during a protest calling for justice for victims of sexual abuse and grooming gangs, outside the council offices at City Centre on January 20, 2025 in Oldham, England

Getty Images

Comment: Talking about race isn’t racist – ignoring it helped grooming gangs thrive

WAS a national inquiry needed into so-called grooming gangs? Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer did not think so in January, but now accepts Dame Louise Casey’s recommendation to commission one.

The previous Conservative government – having held a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse – started loudly championing a new national inquiry once it lost the power to call one. Casey explains why she changed her mind too after her four-month, rapid audit into actions taken and missed on group-based exploitation and abuse. A headline Casey theme is the ‘shying away’ from race.

Keep ReadingShow less