Isha Koppikar opens up about casting couch experience: 'They told me that to get work, you have to...'

Isha Koppikar

Isha Koppikar, who first appeared in Bollywood with the movie Fiza after acting in several South Indian films, has shared a terrifying casting couch experience she had when she was 18.

In addition to her roles in movies like Darna Mana Hai, Pinjar, LOC Kargil, Krishna Cottage, and Don, Isha also performed in popular dance numbers such as "Ishq Samundar" from Kaante and "Khallas" from Company.

Isha Koppikar on her casting couch experience

Isha Koppikar, who started her career in Hindi films with Fiza, talked about her casting couch experience from her early days in the industry. She shared the details of this traumatic incident with Siddharth Kannan, "I was 18 when a secretary and an actor approached me for casting couch. They told me that to get work, you have to be ‘friendly' with actors. I am very friendly, but what does ‘friendly' mean? I am so friendly that Ekta Kapoor once told me to have some attitude."

Isha Koppikar also shared a story about a time when a top actor asked her to meet him alone, "When I was 23, one actor asked me to meet him alone, without my driver or anyone else, because there were rumours about him being involved with other actresses. He said, ‘There are already controversies about me, and the staff spreads rumours.' But I refused and told him that I couldn't come alone. He was an A-list actor from the Hindi film industry."

About Isha Koppikar's hiatus from work

Isha, who took a ten-year-long hiatus just after her marriage, earlier in conversation with us, opened up about her decision to take a break and said, "I felt that sometimes I was wasted [as an artiste]. What happened was that people overpromised but underdelivered. I want to help the film as much as I want the film to help me. It has to be symbiotic. That is why I became more selective. After a certain point in your career, you don't want to do run-of-the-mill films. As an actor, you want to show versatility," adding that it was her hunger for creative parts that led her to Marathi and Telugu films. "I have no regrets," she asserted.

Having said that, Koppikar is now raring to go as she is impressed with the progressive shift in roles written for women in Bollywood. "There is a lot of fire in my belly. The industry has become progressive as better parts are now being written for women. An actor never dies. If you are talented, you are here to stay," she shared.