Surveen Chawla says a director tried to kiss her after talking about her marriage: ‘I had to push him back’

Surveen Chawla opened up about facing casting couch in the film industry. She shared how a director tried to kiss her moments after talking about her marriage.

Actor Surveen Chawla has been working in the film industry for several years now. Amid promotions for her upcoming show Criminal Justice Season 4, the actor opened up about facing the casting couch in her career as an actor several times. Speaking to Hauterrfly in an episode of The Male Feminist, Surveen recalled how she has faced the casting couch in the South as well as in Bollywood. (Also read: Surveen Chawla says actors need to gain weight for South cinema: 'I was told you are too thin, nothing would bounce')

Surveen Chawla recalled how she walked off after pushing the director for trying to kiss her. (ANI Photo) (Sunil Khandare )

What Surveen said

During the interaction, Surveen said in Hindi, "After the meeting at his office cabin, he came to see me off at the gate, and this is after I got married. And we spoke about that in the meeting. He asked me how it was going and what my husband did, and it was just us speaking inside his cabin because he had a big office. So, when I opened the door and he leaned towards me trying to kiss, and I literally had to push him back and said, ‘What are you trying to do here?’ Walk off dude. My instant response was, ‘What are you doing’. I just walked off.”

‘I am sorry you are knocking on the wrong door’

She also shared an incident with a National Award-winning director who did not know how to speak in Hindi, so he gave a message through an intermediary person that he wanted to spend time with her. Surveen shared that she sensed something was off. “This was the code language, and I gave them the time to really say what I thought he was saying, but finally I asked him whether he was really asking that the director wants to sleep with me? ‘Sir, I am sorry you are knocking on the wrong door. I am not in for bartering myself in exchange for work’. I will never forget these lines."

Surveen has worked in several films and shows, notably in Sacred Games, Decoupled, and Rana Naidu. Her new show Criminal Justice Season 4 is now streaming on JioHotstar.