Swara Bhasker said the incident happened after Tanu Weds Manu became successful.
She alleged the director sent her poetry about her appearance before asking for a private rehearsal.
Bhasker said she refused to rehearse a romantic scene alone with the director.
Actor Swara Bhasker has described a troubling episode from the early days of her career, saying a director crossed lines with her after Tanu Weds Manu became a hit, in which she had a supporting role. Swara shared her ordeal on Rise & Fall Season 2. However, she didn't reveal the director's name.
What happened with Swara Bhasker?
Swara claimed the director first sent poems about her looks and then asked her to rehearse a romantic scene away from the rest of the team. She was recounting it to fellow contestants Priyanka Chahar Chaudhary and Tej Pratap Yadav on the show.
She later saw the director and cinematographer drinking, which scared her, and said the whole experience made her deeply uneasy.
Bhasker said the project required a 56-day shoot, but the director's conduct around a rehearsal made her uneasy and then scared.
Director asked her for private rehearsal
Recounting the director's behaviour, she said the discomfort deepened at rehearsal time. Bhasker said the director wanted to go over a romantic scene alone with her, without the rest of the team being present.
She recalled asking who would attend the rehearsal and pushing back when she was told it would be just the two of them. “I said, ‘Who all are there for the rehearsal?’ He said, ‘You and me, we’ll discuss.’ I said, ‘No. You call the actor, you call the camera person. If it is a rehearsal, everyone should do it. Why should we do it alone?’”
Bhasker said she was the only woman staying at the guesthouse. She later saw the director and cinematographer drinking, with the bottle already half empty.
“Later, I saw the director and cinematographer drinking, and their bottle was half empty. I mean, can you imagine? Why is a young woman, a girl in her early 20s, rehearsing with two drunk men? I was so scared, I left that place as soon as possible.”
The episode did not stop there, she said. Bhasker recalled that the filmmaker later turned up at her room late at night, drunk, and kept banging on the door.
“It did not end there. At night, he’s constantly knocking on my door; I thought he would break it. When I opened it, he was swaying and asking me for a hug,” she said.
Bhasker said she refused and told him directly that he was frightening her. “I said, no, you cannot get a hug. He kept slurring and pushing for it. I told him to his face that he’s scaring me. I couldn’t do anything more; he’s the director of the film.”
