Akanksha Choudhary says ‘influential’ man demanded sex in exchange for money: ‘Grabbed me, wouldn’t take his hands off'

Lock Upp's finale week saw emotional confessions and a double elimination. Akanksha Choudhary exposed a disturbing casting couch experience.

The reality show Lock Upp has finally entered its finale week, with the top seven finalists now confirmed. The latest episode featured several emotional confessions as well as a double elimination. Reality TV star and model Akanksha Choudhary, who was among those eliminated, opened up about a disturbing casting couch ordeal she faced in the beauty pageant industry, leaving the inmates and hosts emotional.

Akanksha Choudhary shares an emotional secret before being eliminated from Lock Upp.

Akanksha Choudhary revealed a disturbing secret on Lock Upp

Before her elimination from Lock Upp, Akanksha chose to reveal her secret. She said, “I was going to participate in a pageant and needed around ₹1-2 lakhs to buy garments, pay for training fees, etc. We didn’t have that kind of money; my parents couldn’t afford it. There is one very influential person. I don’t want to give full details because he is a huge name. I knew him for many years because he had come as a judge in our pageants before. I reached out to him because he had financially helped a lot of people in pageants, so I asked him if he could do so for me for two months.”

Akanksha revealed that she had an engineering degree and good communication skills, so she offered to work to repay the debt. She claimed that although the man agreed immediately, he allegedly had ulterior motives. She said he invited her to his house and recalled that it was not her first time visiting the place, as she had previously attended events there with her mentors. However, she said that on this occasion, he walked up to her and hugged her.

She added, “But he didn’t just hug me. He grabbed me. After that, he wouldn’t take his hands off me. He was quite old, so I just pushed him away. Then he sat down and told me, ‘It’s been a year; good to see you have finally grown up. A year ago, when you had come, I had seen how your thinking was so backward. If you had agreed to be with me back then, you would be acting in projects now. Right now, no one is giving you work, so now that you have come, I am offering you this much money. But in return, you will have to have sex with me.’ He had the whole timeline planned out. In a month, I was expected to have sex with him 5-6 times.”

Akanksha said that she told the man she would not have visited him had she known his intentions and refused his offer. However, she claimed that he did not take her rejection well and responded by questioning her decision. He told her, “He said, ‘I thought after a year, you would change the way you think. But you are still stuck up in the old mindset. Two years from now, you will regret this. Is industry mein bina uske kuch kaam nahi hota hai (In this industry, nothing works without that) because you are a nobody.’ Then six months later, I was on a very big show. One year later, I am standing on one of the biggest stages.”

Farah Khan and Riteish Deshmukh praised Akanksha for standing up for herself and said that her decision could give other women the courage to speak up against similar experiences. They added, “Whoever that person is, I hope he is watching this show, and he should know that even after rejecting all this, a person can reach a platform this big through hard work. You are not old-fashioned. We are proud of you.”

About Lock Upp

Lock Upp has entered its finale week, with Shreya Kalra, Yogesh Rawat, Ram Kapoor, Shilpa Shinde, Harshad Chopda, Shivangi Joshi and Varun Yadav emerging as the finalists. One of them will lift the trophy at the end of the week and take home ₹1 crore in prize money.