Director wanted me to kiss him, another asked me to be 'more than friends': Zareen Khan on casting couch

Zareen Khan, who had made her Bollywood debut opposite Salman Khan in Veer, spoke about facing casting couch approaches in the industry.

Hailing from a non-filmy background, Zareen was absolutely unaware of how the industry works. During her relatively early days in the industry, Zareen was asked by a director to rehearse a kissing scene with him.

"In the whole pretext of trying to rehearse a scene, the person was like 'You have to let go of your inhibitions!'. He then says, 'Let's do a kissing scene'. I told him 'no, I am not doing any kissing scene as rehearsal," Zareen told Pinkvilla.

Narrating another such incident, the actress said that a director directly asked her to become "more than just friends".

"Years later when I already knew how the industry works, this person told me 'Can we be more than friends and all? I will then specifically look into the projects that you are getting and I will make you lead somewhere'. I said no, I don't work like that. If I am going to get projects, I am going to get those on my credibility. If I am doing you favours, what is the guarantee? You will anyways going to tell the same thing to 10 other girls," she said.

Zareen also opened up about the backlash she had faced due to her weight and for the comparisons made between her and Katrina Kaif.

"After Veer, there were a lot of criticisms for reasons I don't even know. I don't come from a filmy background, I don't have people grooming me from the age of 10. From my looks to my weight, everything was criticised. People love comparing, when Preity Zinta came they compared her to Amrita Singh, when Ameesha Patel came they compared her to Neelam. But the difference is when they were compared, the senior actresses were done with their part of acting. Here me and Katrina Kaif are both there together," she added.