Elnaaz Norouzi is grateful that she didn’t give in to alleged abuser’s demands: ‘He wanted me to quit Sacred Games’
Sacred Games actor Elnaaz Norouzi revisited the accusations that she had made against a prominent Bollywood filmmaker during the #MeToo movement, and said that casting couch situations used to happen quite frequently prior to the movement.
In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, the actor also spoke about her earlier accusations against the filmmaker, and said that he was trying to influence her to drop out of Sacred Games, and star in his film instead. She thanked her lucky stars, since the film in question, she said, became ‘the biggest flop of the year’.
Responding to a question about the casting couch being prevalent in the film industry, Elnaaz said, “Yes, and especially before the #MeToo movement, it used to happen a lot. It’s sobered down since then, because people are more cautious, maybe. Who knows, maybe it’s still happening now, and it’s worse for newcomers.”
Asked if it was ‘traumatic’ to relive the incident, she said, “Of course, but I feel that if I can help somebody by sharing my story, then it’s my duty to do it. It was a very, very bad experience for me, not only because of what happened, but because he was telling me — I was between Sacred Games and his film — and he was telling me not to do Sacred Games and do his film instead. With all the behaviour and all the things that he was doing, I realised that this would be the wrong choice. Look at where Sacred Games took me, and that film was the biggest flop of that year.
In addition to Sacred Games, Elnaaz has appeared in the Israeli Apple TV+ spy series Tehran. She most recently appeared in JugJugg Jeeyo, starring Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani, Anil Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor. Elnaaz is of Iranian origin, and recently offered support to the ongoing protests in the country driven by young women, by symbolically shedding her clothes in an Instagram video.
During the Indian #MeToo movement, Elnaaz had accused filmmaker Vipul Amrutlal Shah of inappropriate behavior. I have again put the conversation around sexual harassment in the film industry in the spotlight after #MeToo accused filmmaker Sajid Khan’s attempts at rehabilitation via Bigg Boss.
