Ravi Kishan opens up about experiencing the casting couch, says he was ‘attacked’ many times: ‘I was lean, had long hair, wore an earring’
Actor Ravi Kishan, who has starred in over 450 Bhojpuri films, in addition to having established himself in the Hindi-language industry, spoke about experiencing the casting couch early in his career. He said that he left his village in Bihar and moved to Mumbai as a teenager, where he was desperate for work because he’d seen unimaginable poverty as a youth. During this phase, some people tried to take advantage of him, but he displayed patience and didn’t give in to their demands.
In an interview with Shubhankar Mishra on YouTube, Ravi Kishan was asked if it’s true that even men are victimised by sexual predators in the Mumbai film industry. He said, “When you’re young and good-looking, when you’re fit but have no money, some people attempt to take advantage of you. This happens in several fields, not just in the films. They try their hand, and hope it works out.”
He continued, “I have faced many such attacks in my youth. I was lean, I had long hair, I wore an earring. I would like to tell everyone out there that there are no shortcuts to success. I know of many people who’ve tried to take such shortcuts, and have regretted it immensely. They’ve slipped into addictions, or they’ve taken their lives.”
Ravi Kishan said that he chose to remain patient, and not take an easy path to success and stardom. “I haven’t seen anybody become a star through the shortcut method. Wait for your time to come; have patience. I would tell myself that one day the sun will rise for me. All my friends in the ’90s, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn, they became superstars. But I waited for my time,” he said.
Ravi Kishan was most recently seen in the film Laapataa Ladies, which was selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars. It failed to make the longlist in the Best International Feature category. He also stars in the Netflix series Maamla Legal Hai, which will return for a second season.
Credit From The Indian Express
