Stree 2 star Abhishek Baneerjee reveals 'casting with sex' was a 'regular practice' in Bollywood: 'After MeToo...'

In the course of time, several stars and strugglers have opened about facing casting couch incidents in the earlier phases of their careers. Actor Abhishek Banerjee known for movies like Stree 2, Bhediya, Bala, Vedaa and Stolen among others, who, also runs a casting company, admitted that asking for sexual favours was a common practice in Bollywood, which changed thanks to MeToo movement.

However, he said that his company has always preferred talent over anything else and none of his company members indulge in such kind of malpractices.

“I think and I hope less of coffee shop meetings and less of dinner meetings after MeToo. I think that’s one change, probably. When I speak to my female colleagues, I realise that now they’ve understood, they’ve become smarter than the guys would not be that direct," Banerjee told Mid-Day while talking about MeToo movement.

More from Entertainment

'Jugnuma' Movie Review: Manoj Bajpayee-Deepak Dobriyal’s terrific performances stood out in this beautifully restrained way of storytelling 'Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale' Movie Review: The final goodbye of Julian Fellowes’s beloved British soap

“But otherwise it was a very strong practice to have these coffee shop and dinner meetings for casting, which I never understood. I had a very strict rule in my casting company that nobody could go and meet an actor outside the office space. And if you’re meeting them outside office space, you’re not meeting them as a casting director. If I get to know that you’ve met an actor at some coffee shop for casting, you’re fired," he added.

“I remember when I used to cast, it was so difficult for people to like accept that we were doing it without sex. Ki hum kaam kar rahe hain, but hum only kaam kar rahe hain (That we are only working)," he said.

“I have had experiences where after casting somebody, people have said, ‘Oh, so now when?’ And I would go, ‘What? You’re a fantastic actor. Like, why can’t you just accept that?" That there’s no prior notion behind casting you. It used to happen a lot," Abhishek concluded.