Sri Reddy is a regular on many Telugu TV channels and social media portals for speaking boldly on a taboo subject that has been prevalent for a long time – the casting couch syndrome. It’s a reality no one dares admit to.
The Telugu film industry has always worn the holier than thou mantle with ease. But struggling starlet Sri Reddy, aka Alekhya, is now leaving no stone unturned to expose the ugly face of the industry.
In an echo of Hollywood’s #MeToo movement, Sri Reddy has made startling revelations on the ‘Casting Couch’ system in the South Indian film industry. Her barbs are aimed mainly at film directors, producers and coordinators who exploit the desperation in aspiring artistes and make indecent proposals.
‘Compromise and Cooperation’
According to Sri Reddy, these two words mean the same — they are euphemisms for a willingness to concede to the sexual favours sought by the power brokers for a bit role. And Sri Reddy unabashedly claims to have yielded to these ‘requests’. She also said the girls have to satisfy everyone on the sets — from the director to the cameraman.
The outcome, however, according to her, after the steam has evaporated, amounts to nothing. The promised roles still remain elusive.
A Telugu TV channel during a panel discussion on this subject, in which the actor also participated, made public a photo it procured during a sting operation on her. Though the image was deliberately blurred, it showed her in an intimate pose with a bearded man from the industry. Sri Reddy admits it was she in that photo!
Struggling artistes, she says, have to suffer these indignities to make a living in the industry. While some are willing to shed all inhibitions and reservations,others latch on to a rich boyfriend or are even willing to enter into a relationship with married men just to be able to buy expensive clothes or pay off EMIs for their car loans or house mortgage.
Reddy finds fault with filmmakers who look to girls from the north or other southern states and turn a blind eye to Telugu artistes. Not one movie is made with a Telugu actress in the lead role. And this is her real fight. She questions top Telugu hero Pawan Kalyan, who has been spearheading the campaign for Special Status for Andhra Pradesh, on why he doesn’t encourage Telugu actresses in his movies. Why does Pawan Kalyan always choose heroines like Samantha, Tamanna, Praneetha or Kajol — all non-Telugu actors — but never a Telugu girl.
Sri Reddy, who started her career as a news reader and anchor at NTV and Sakshi TV, says she didn’t want to remain a ‘frog in a well’ and ‘wanted to flow like a river’ and move to the glamour world. She made forays into modelling and in a natural progression tapped the doors of Telugu cinema. She realised it wasn’t a cakewalk .
She is unrepentant about yielding to casting couch demands in her struggle to achieve her goal and justifies it saying even Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut had once washed the dishes in a hotel.
She quotes another Bollywood actor Ileana D’cruz, who has acted with several top Telugu heroes such as Mahesh Babu, NTR Jr and Prabhas, as having said, ‘It might sound cowardly, but I do agree that if one speaks out on the casting couchsystem, it will end their career. Years ago, a junior artiste down South, who was being propositioned by a big producer, sought my advice on how to deal with it.’
Is a movie career her only option? Sri Reddy says she can’t think of anything else ‘just like a student who had been preparing for engineering can’t change mid-way to pursue a career in medicine’.
Refuting the suggestion that she is doing this for cheap publicity or instant fame, Sri Reddy urges other girls with similar stories to come forward and start a #MeToo movement in the Telugu film industry.
