Fatima Sana Shaikh On Her Casting Couch Experience In South Films: “You Will Do Everything, Right?”

Fatima Sana Shaikh also revealed how casting directors exploited newcomers in Mumbai

Fatima Sana Shaikh, who made her debut with Aamir Khan’s Dangal, recently opened up about her casting couch experience in a Southern film. Speaking to Bollywood Bubble, Fatima recalled a casting agent’s call and how his repeated “provocative” words made her feel uncomfortable.

The Ludo actor told Bollywood Bubble, “He asked me, ‘You will be ready to do everything, right?’ I told him that I will be working hard and will do what is required for the role, but he kept saying that, and I played dumb because I wanted to see how low can he get.”

During the same interview Fatima Sana Shaikh also recounted an unsettling experience in Hyderabad where she hoped to secure a role in a South film. Fatima shared that she thought the film would be a stepping stone for her before entering the Hindi film industry.

Recalling the experience of meeting a producer in Hyderabad, Fatima told the portal, “The producers would talk about it very openly, ‘You know, here you have to meet people’. 

“They wouldn’t say things outright but would imply them in strange ways. Of course, they’d say it indirectly but make their intentions clear. They’d say things like, ‘You have to meet people’, or ‘You have to do this and that’.”

Fatima Sana Shaikh also revealed how casting directors exploited newcomers in Mumbai by demanding a “cut” from their earnings on the pretext of “references.”

Fatima Sana Shaikh was seen as a child artiste in Kamal Haasan’s Chachi 420. Later, she worked in films like Thugs of Hindostan, Ludo, Ajeeb Daastaans, Thar, Sam Bahadur.

Fatima will next be seen in Anurag Basu’s multi-starrer Metro… In Dino.