"I was startled and asked him what he was doing"
Surveen Chawla has spoken out about facing harassment in the film industry, recalling an incident where a director tried to kiss her moments after they chatted about her recent marriage to Akshay Thakker.
The actress shared that the encounter took place in Mumbai and was not an isolated experience. She said she has faced similar situations on multiple occasions throughout her career.
Surveen recalled: “I will tell you a tale about Mumbai’s Veera Desai Road only.
“After the meeting at his office cabin, he came to see me off at the gate, and this was after I got married.
“And the strange thing was that we talked about this in the meeting also, 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.”
Describing the moment she felt violated, Surveen added:
“So, when I came to the door to say bye, he leaned towards me trying to kiss, and I had to push him back.
“I was startled and asked him what he was doing, and I just walked off.”
This is not the first time the Sacred Games actress has opened up about misconduct in the entertainment industry.
In another incident, she revealed that a director from the South Indian film industry wanted her to sleep with him.
Surveen said that he communicated his intention via a third person, as he wasn’t fluent in Hindi or English.
Surveen had said certain people in the industry “get you in this space where you question yourself”.
She also recalled her early days of transitioning from television to cinema, describing how she was judged not for her talent but for her body.
During her first film meeting in Mumbai, she said she was questioned about her “appearance, weight, waist size, chest size”.
Surveen Chawla began her acting career in 2003 with the popular television drama Kahin To Hoga. She later appeared in several successful TV shows including Kasautii Zindagi Kay, Kaajjal and 24.
She made her film debut in 2008 with the Kannada movie Paramesha Panwala, and went on to appear in Bollywood films such as Hum Tum Shabana, Ugly, Hate Story 2, Parched and the acclaimed short film Chhuri. She has also featured in several Punjabi films.
Surveen’s digital debut came with Netflix’s Sacred Games, in which she played Jojo Mascarenas.
She can currently be seen in Criminal Justice season 4, alongside Pankaj Tripathi. She is also a part of Rana Naidu Season 2, which will be out on Netflix on June 13.
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