Casting a Second Thought

An Israeli who wrote about Bollywood’s casting couch is upset that the rest of her book is ignored

MUMBAI ~ Rina Golan, an Israeli Bollywood struggler turned author, who has recently been reported as someone ‘who has exposed Bollywood’s dirty casting couch secret’ in her first book, Dear Mr Bollywood, is upset. The writer, whose website tells you she is a drama therapy major at New York University, says that’s not what the book is about.

“The media has only focused on those chapters, and I am very upset. The book is about my journey here since 2007, my experiences and my love for India, acting, and Shah Rukh Khan.” The book, written as a letter to SRK, is an account of Rina’s life in Mumbai as a struggler trying to make it big. Newspapers have been full of excerpts that speak of Rina being propositioned for sexual favours by Bollywood bigwigs such as Subhash Ghai and Anees Bazmee. She has alleged that Ghai tried to take her to his bedroom, Bazmee asked her out to dinner when she approached him for a role in his movie Thank You (2011), and told her, “We would have some fun,” and the singer Anup Jalota confided in her that he ‘wants to cheat on his wife’.

Golan now just wants to forget these events. “When I first came here, I didn’t expect anything. I did the whole struggler routine—went to auditions, got portfolios clicked. But I was very sure that I would never compromise on my integrity and morals, as I have seen others do. But that’s not the moral of the book. This kind of stuff can happen anywhere—in any kind of work. So why is everyone focusing on this aspect? I don’t even want to talk about it anymore. I am not here to malign Bollywood. My book is only about a person who wants to follow her dreams.”

Last heard, Bazmee had decided to sue Golan for these “allegations”. Golan, for now, just wants to promote her book, and never do a Bollywood movie. “If I had done all this for publicity, I would want to do a movie, right? But I don’t. Ever. I just want to write now. My books are meant to inspire people through things I feel passionately about. Even if somebody gave me a big movie, I wouldn’t do it. Now, I just want to write.”

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