I know my worth, says Kalki

Director Anurag Kashyap’s wife Kalki says she doesn’t owe her career to the casting couch. Payal Rohatgi, are you listening?

Kalki Koechlin isn’t troubled by casting couch rumours. The actor wife of director Anurag Kashyap says she pities starlets like Payal Rohatgi, who had accused her of being a product of Bollywood’s infamous road to stardom.

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She adds, “I feel sorry for people who indulge in such gossip. I was in London performing a play when this controversy broke out.” The controversy in question occurred in March this year, when Payal accused Love Sex Aur Dhoka (2010) director Dibakar Banerjee of soliciting sexual favours in return for a movie role.

Anurag had publicly defended his friend, prompting the angry starlet to say that Kalki also owed her career to the casting couch. She pointed out that Kalki had been sleeping with Anurag for a while, which led to her landing a role in his film, Dev.D (2009). But Kalki shrugs off the mud-slinging, saying, "I’m not affected by another person’s opinion of me. I’m not just acting in my husband’s productions, I’m also acting in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s My Friend Pinto and Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. People who are insecure need to defend themselves. I know my worth, so I don’t feel the need to."

Kalki, who is working with Dibakar in Shanghai, defends him saying, “Dibakar is a perfectionist on the sets and has never misbehaved with anyone. The casting couch exists in every profession. But one always has a choice.”