Sleep with two people...

Recalling this meeting with a fiftysomething ‘coordinator’ with a paunch and multiple phones still arouses disgust. The writers of this report got to know about a person, based in West Delhi, who had allegedly cheated many models. When we called him, asking for modelling work, he told us to meet him at the parking lot of the Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts, Mandi House, central Delhi, the same evening.

When we reached, he was waiting for us at the parking, sitting inside his grey Zen. He insisted that we sit in his car and talk, but we refused. He got out of his car and took us to a tea stall. There, he told us that he was the head of a cinema artists’ and technicians’ federation. “We are government-approved. We issue artist cards that are valid across India. Our people are placed in popular TV serials,” he claimed. He told us that the artist card would cost ₹35,000. He also claimed that Gajendra Chauhan, actor and ex-chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, was his close friend. “I work with him to place artists in Mumbai. We’ve also tied up with CINTAA

(Cine and TV Artists Association),” he said.

Then, the so-called agent explained how the casting couch would be inevitable in the glamour world. “If there’s a big banner, you sleep with at least two people — the producer and the director. It will happen after the contract is signed and you get the first instalment of your fees. Once you do it, work is assured,” he said. Next, he pointed towards some female artists hanging out at the tea stall, and said, “They’re successful because they slept for work. It’s simple. If there are two equally talented and beautiful artists, the one who agrees to compromise will get the project,” he said.

Following this meeting, the agent sent us a mail with images of semi-naked and naked women as ‘shoot reference’. He said, “I’ll shoot you like this. I’ll send the pictures to production houses looking for a female lead.”

When we called Gajendra Chauhan to verify the agent’s claims, the actor said that he didn’t know this man. “I don’t have any such associate in Delhi. I’m not aware of any such federation. This guy is fake,” he said. Chauhan also explained that no one could make an artists’ federation just like that. “They’d have to go through the Federation of Western India Cine Employees, the mother body of all Indian cinema associations; it has 22 associations under it. Artist cards made by random association can’t be valid,” he said.

We then told the agent that Chauhan had denied any sort of partnership with him, and he said, “Toh isse aapko kya farq padta hai? Aapko toh kaam se matlab hai na?” Indeed!