Actor Ankita Lokhande rose to fame owing to the popularity of her TV series Pavitra Rishta and gained further recognition after she entered Bigg Boss 17 with her husband Vicky Jain. However, if she hadn’t experienced a casting couch early in her career, she might have begun her career as a film actress. She opened up about her unpleasant experience with a film producer who offered to cast her in a South Indian film only if she agreed to “sleep with him.”
Ankita Lokhande told Hauterrfly that she met a filmmaker at a Mumbai hotel after receiving a call informing her that she had been selected for a role. Replying to a question on whether she faced any casting couch incident, she recounted, “I had given an audition and I got a call saying, ‘You have been selected.’ I was supposed to go to sign and I told them, ‘Yes, I will come to the hotel.’ I even told my mother excitedly that I am going and I will get the signing amount.”
She said that was apprehensive about the pleasant development and added, “When I went to the hotel, they called me in and asked my coordinator to stand outside. They said, ‘You have to compromise.’ I was just 19 then. At that time, it was like ‘I want to be a heroine and that phase was on.’ I played smart because I did not want to hear that I had to sleep with someone. So I asked them, ‘What kind of a compromise? Do you want me to go to a party with your producers, finances?’ I played it very smart so that I don’t get to hear what they were supposed to say.”
She further shared that they told her, “You have to sleep with the producer.” When Ankita Lokhande heard their words, she stood up and replied, “I don’t think your producer needs a talent, they need a girl to sleep with and I am not that one,” before leaving. She determined that day that she would only work in the television industry and would not pursue a career in film, despite the fact that she handled the situation quite effectively.
She mentioned, “That day I realised this industry or anywhere, I cannot give anyone the right to any person who can ask me that I have to sleep with them. I felt so low about myself that how could someone say this to me? That day I decided, I was not going to do films. I don’t want to do films. Because I don’t give rights to anyone, it’s dirty and then I decided whatever happens, I am happy with my television industry. After that, I got this opportunity of Pavitra Rishta and I happily did that.”
Ekta Kapoor’s Pavitra Rishta, starring Ankita Lokhande and late Sushant Singh Rajput, is one of the most popular soap operas on Indian Television. It aired on Zee TV from 2009 to 2014. Sushant later became a popular film actor before his mysterious death in 2020.
However, Ankita Lokhande made her Bollywood debut with Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi’ in 2019 after a successful career on the small screen. She also acted in ‘Baaghi 3’ which was released in 2020 and will soon be seen playing a significant part in Randeep Hooda starrer ‘Swatantra Veer Savarkar.’
Watch the complete interview here: