Back in 2018, a wave sprung up due to the #MeToo movement, which inspired many sexual assault survivors to come forward and open up about their stories and call out the predator. Recently, actor Rajeev Khandelwal opened up during an interview, regarding how he received inappropriate advances.
He shared his experience on a casting couch, where a particular made inappropriate advances at him. His words quote, “The incident gave me flashes of a once-upon-a-time super director who had offered me a movie back then when I did not start doing films.”
Prior to Raj Kumar Gupta’s ‘Aamir’, Rajeev remained a popular face on TV alone. He was the male lead on various television shows like Left Right Left and Kahiin Toh Hoga. The actor recalls an invitation to the filmmaker's office at home, for film discussion. He added that he wouldn’t proceed without reading the script, to which the filmmaker twitched. The filmmaker found that disrespectful.
He went on to say, “Next time, he called me from his office to his room, and then he made me sit there and decided not to give me the story, instead asked me to decide whether I want to do the movie based on one song.”
He also mentioned, “By the second meeting, I had realized things were just not alright. It turned into a hilarious situation as well. I found myself feeling how any woman in my place would have felt. He asked me to go to his room which I refused to. I dropped names and mentioned that I have a girlfriend back then waiting for me so that the guy knows that I am straight.”
The actor revealed that he was allegedly even threatened by the filmmaker, to ruin his career if he didn’t get along with his demands. His words quoted, “Later, he offered me a two-film deal, saying that he had heard that I was doing a small budget-movie, which was Aamir, at that time. I replied to him saying that I was happy with my small budget movie. I don’t know what happened to his film when it came out.”
Rajeev’s latest show streams on Voot, a web series called ‘Marzi’, also featuring Aahana Kumra.
