While Saroj Khan's shocking statement on the existence of casting couch received massive outrage on social media, otherwise vocal Bollywood brigade has been silent on this issue. Now Swara Bhaskar and Sonam Kapoor dodged the question on it saying that it's not related to the film Veere Di Wedding.
Veere Di Wedding lead cast – Swara, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam and Shikha Talsania were present at the trailer launch of the movie. One reporter asked them to comment on Saroj's statement wherein she had defended the practice of casting couch in Bollywood.
All the four actresses initially just laughed and tried to dodge the question by asking each other to reply to it. Finally, Sonam and Kareena managed to convince Swara to respond to the question, but all she had to say is she wouldn't comment on this because it's not related to the film.
"First of all, this question has no connection to Veere Di Wedding. We should restrict all the questions to the film only. We will talk about other things somewhere else," Swara said at the trailer launch event.
Soon, Sonam jumped in and added that she or Swara would answer all the other questions later. "Every question that is not relating to the film, I promise, Swara or me, we will answer all these on-one-one basis. Right now are trying to keep the focus on this because next headline shouldn't be like 'Swara Bhaskar ne yeh Saroj Khan ke bare mein bola'. We will talk about this later," Sonam said at the event.
Before Sonam could complete her words, Swara had also added that she would talk about it on Twitter. Although Sonam, Swara, and Kareena were vocal about demanding justice for the Kathua rape victim, their silence on an issue like casting couch is raising questions on their apparent selective outrage.
Earlier, Saroj had invited flak by saying that casting couch prevails, but it also provides livelihood to women. She had said that casting couch is not rape, and it happens with the girl's consent.
"This has been going on since baba Adam's era, it's not new. Everyone tries to take advantage of girls. Even people in the government do. Why are you after the film industry alone? At least it provides livelihood. Doesn't rape and dump the girl. It depends on what the girl wants. If she doesn't want to fall into the hands of such people, she won't fall. Why would you sell yourself if you have art in you? Don't take film industry's name, it's our everything," she had said at a media interaction.
The veteran choreographer had later apologized for her remark.