'Humble Politican Nograj' actress Sruthi Hariharan has opened up about her casting couch experience in Kollywood. Speaking at the India Today conclave as a part of a panel on 'Sexism in Cinema', she said, “One of the leading producers in Tamil Cinema bought the rights to my Kannada film and offered me the same role in the Tamil remake. He said, and I'm quoting him verbatim, 'we are five producers and we will exchange you however we want. I retorted by saying that I carry a slipper with me in my hand.”
She went on to reveal how she stopped receiving good offers in the industry since the incident provoked rumours about her being a difficult person to work with. “Many producers who knew this man asked me if I actually said what I said. Since then, I have not received good projects from Tamil.” Unfortunately, this wasn't the actress' first and only brush with casting couch. She experienced the ugliness for the first time when she was only 18. “I have had a casting couch experience when I was 18 and on my first Kannada film. It did leave me so scared and petrified that I remember me crying. When I told my dance choreographer about what happened, he told me that if I didn't know how to handle this, I should leave,” she said.
