Payal Rahotgi a real victim of casting couch?

The recent reports on actress Payal Rahotgi being a victim to casting couch is still in a confusing state. Payal, who was seen in films like Plan, 36 China Town and Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai has claimed that she was approached by director Dibakar Banerjee for a role in his upcoming film Shanghai.

The actress continued alleging that Dibakar, who shot to fame with his film Love, Sex Aur Dhokha dropped by her home with an excuse to talk about her role in the film and later mis-behaved with her asking her to take off her top. Payal added that when she refused to do so Dibakar stamped her out of the film.

Payal's version of the story reveals that the actress got in contact with the director through a message. Very soon they became friends and Payal considered Dibakar a mentor. She then insisted on getting a role in Dibakar's film Shanghai starring Emraan Hashmi and Abhay Deol. Payal was then asked to give auditions for the role. Later, after the auditions the casting couch episode followed.

Meanwhile, Dibakar's version of the story claims that Payal started the conversation with all 'flirtatious' messages and then stressed on getting a role in the film, for which he asked her to give the screen test. Later, she kept calling her asking for the results of the screening, she sounded very disturbed and insisted on meeting him. She asked Dibaker to pick her up from her place.

They then headed towards the studio, where while conversing with a group of people they did talk about her putting on weight, but he didn't ask her to lift up her top. He continued narrating the story to TOI by saying that after leaving the place she kept messaging and calling him asking about the screen test results, to which Dibakar asked her to contact his casting director. When the calls and messages became repetitive he stopped taking any of her calls or messages.

Well, who between the two is narrating the right version of the story is something that cannot be guessed at least in this lifetime, however casting couch seems to have become a part and parcel of the film industry.