Yes, sex gets in the way: Vikram Bhatt

Here’sdirector Vikram Bhatt’s candid take on the casting couch, following threeB-Town directors facing accusations of indecent proposals by aspiringactors
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are driving together to NewYork after completing their graduation in ‘When Harry met Sally’ andthe film’s writer Nora Ephron made his character mouth one of the mostmemorable line on a man woman relationship and I quote, “men and womencan't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.” Of coursethis leads to a huge argument between Harry and Sally but that is not the pointhere.The point here is does the sex part always get in the way?
Nowthis piece is more precisely about When Harry Propositioned Sally where Harry isthe movie director and Sally is the Sexy Starlet and yet the question is thesame, does the sex part always get in the way?Madhur Bhandarkar, Onirban and nowDebakar Banerjee all victims or victimizers, we could do a poll on it and comewith interesting results but one thing is for certain, they are all a part ofwhat I call the human grey zone of Bollywood. I am sure the grey zone existselsewhere as well but this one is definitely under the scanner. Casting couchhas grown to include a lot of things in time but let me define the casting couchand this and only this defines the casting couch and I have spoken!
When a filmmaker promises an actor, (female or male) a part in hisor her movie in return for a sexual favour then that constitutes the castingcouch and that and only that constitutes the casting couch. This deal has nofriendship, no emotion, no love and no being understanding involved. It is justabout the proverbial, “one night in Bangkok”. The rest is the humangrey area that I shall explain. So cut away then, in Harry’s parlance, tothe murky area and you will find there a sea of contradictions and take thisfrom a Harry who is writing this piece and has had quite a few of his Harryismsreported by the media for posterity. Luckily those were matters of the heart andI never couched and can say that with fair amount smugness. Follow me into thesea of complex human emotion then! There is a Harry and a Sally and know thatthey are in fact cursed to be amongst the tribe of lonely people.
Sally comes to meet Harry and Harry finds Sally very attractive. Sally, in turn loves the attention and please note that this is a professionalmeeting. Then phone numbers are exchanged and in the age of the Blackberry thepin codes are exchanged. The conversations begin. They are becoming friends nowand exchanging the stories of their lives, their dreams and their aspirations.Once in a while Sally asks about a film and Harry says when something that suitsyou comes up. The friendship meanwhile blossoms but alas Nora Ephron’swords come true and the sex thing gets in the way!There is no couch here forcertain but just an attraction between two people that starts off in the officebut continues outside of it. You may ask why did Harry have to befriend her?Sally wanted to be a friend too! Why did Sally give him her number? She likedbeing friends with Harry.
Why did Harry confide in her? Cause Sallyseemed interested in him. Why did Sally pretend to be interested? Was shepretending? There is no end to the list of the whys and there is no clearanswer. It’s human! Very human. There are no absolutes in this matter butthere is one truth. You cannot chase fame without being self obsessed and youcannot like another by being self obsessed. Therein lies the greatestcontradiction and when the self obsessed part wins the friendship breaks and theonly thing that remains is the memory of the meeting in the office and thequestion, So Harry met Sally to cast her in a movie, right?