Richa Chadha reveals facing casting couch incidents in industry

Richa Chadha recently opened up about facing casting couch approaches in the industry, and how she tackled all those.

The actress said that many a times powerful men in the industry had asked her for "dinner" during her early days in the industry. She said that while she was initially too naïve to understand those approaches, she had later realised it.

"A couple of times I didn't get it. Like I said, I was really young and stupid. Once a man came to me and said 'we should have dinner'. I said 'but sir I already ate'. It was like around 10.30-11.00 and we met at a gathering and I have an uncle, he works in advertising. He was in the room. So he was like 'we should have dinner'. I said 'sir maine toh kha lia. I had paneer, I had dal, I had dahi, roti.' He said 'no no no we should have dinner'. I said 'sir I ate papad, I ate achaar'. I told him everything I ate. He said 'no! we should have dinner (suggestively, stroking her arms)'. I was like 'uhhh...oh! Uncle!'," Richa told Pinkvilla.

The bold and versatile actress said that she even now at times have to deal with such inappropriate advances.

"If you are an established actor, and the person opposite you who is making advances is also an important person who has power in the industry, given the outcome of MeToo and what's happening today, I would just say, this is stuff we have to navigate on daily basis, we shouldn't have to," she added.

Richa, who has proved her acting skills with multiple strong performances in films like Masaan, Section 375, Fukrey among others, further said that things are more difficult for outsiders.