Samia joins Faria, exposing 'casting couch'

Another Bangladeshi actress, Samia Sayeed, has opened up about her embarrassing 'casting couch' experiences, saying she cannot compromise with anybody for working in showbiz.

Actress Faria Shahrin has earlier raised a number of allegations of sexual harassment against several producers, directors, businessmen and others, though without directly naming them.

Joining Faria, Samia, in an interview with Prothom Alo, alleged that she received several 'indecent proposals' at the very beginning of her career.

Samia entered the entertainment industry winning Lux Channel i Superstar pageant in 2012.

Excerpts of her interview are as follows:

Prothom Alo: You don’t work much in the TV plays. Why is so?

Samia: You need to maintain 'contacts' to do more quality productions. Sometimes, makers maintain certain circles for their projects. In some cases, they don’t want to give the opportunity to others. There are some other issues as well. I am from a family with values that won’t allow me to do such compromises.

PA: What does that exactly mean?

Samia: Say, I can act in a project professionally. But, I cannot 'compromise' to earn that role. I have encountered many indecent proposals in a short span of my career. I had been selected in several big budget projects but couldn't do those.

PA: Are you talking about casting couch?

Samia: Precisely, yes. Not only in showbiz, you will find this everywhere. But as we have a large number of fans and followers, anything related to the show business becomes a hot issue.