Bhagya Lakshmi actor Akash Choudhary: Lost big shows because I was not ready to compromise

Bhagya Lakshmi actor Akash Choudhary, who has worked majorly on the small screen, opens up the realities of casting couch in showbiz

Actors coming out in open, and sharing incidents of encountering casting couch is nothing new, and with each new actors who decides to speak up, the reality plaguing the entertainment industry gets more shocking. Stating that he had faced casting couch first-hand, Bhagya Lakshmi actor Akash Choudhary reveals that he was replaced from shows when he refused to compromise. “No matter how much people deny, casting couch does exist in this industry. It has happened with me not once or twice, but several times,” Akash tells us, adding that this was the primary reason why he quit modelling to make a career in acting.

Actor Akash Choudhary was seen in TV show, Bhagya Lakshmi

“Sadly, the scene is the same here as well. I don’t want to name this person, but he is part of one of the biggest production houses on Indian television. I was finalised for a character, and we had slotted a time for the trailer shoot. This guy called and asked me to come over to his place at night, but I refused his advances. Next morning, I got to know that I am out of the show,” laments Choudhary.

Apart from this incident, the 30-year-old, who was also a contestant in reality show Splitsvilla, adds that he has enough proof against where people from the small screen industry have made sexual advances to him.

“I still have messages on my phone where people from the TV world have texted and asked me to compromise, giving me examples of other actors and big names that, ‘Unhone bhi kiya hai’. I’m sure half the people have not done anything like that, and they [show makers, casting agents and producers] just take the names to entice me,” says the actor, stressing that “it’s not just female actors who face casting couch”, but men, are equally exploited.

Dismissing the speculation, he tells us, “We are just good friends. We always travel together but I know how people take it when a girl and guy go out on a vacation. I’d just say we are good friends, who love to travel together.”