This story is from June 26, 2008

Casting couch is an open secret: Koel

TNN / Jun 26, 2008, 00:08 IST

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Even though it’s great fun to work in Tollywood, there are still some heroines who don’t mind sleeping with anyone from a co-actor to a production manager, says Koel Mallick, in a tell-all interview to CT.

I��m a pretty little school girl/ As pretty as I can be/ And all the boys in the neighbourhood are crazy about me/ My boyfriend��s name is Mellow/ He lives in the land of Jell-O/ He��s got cherry borry nose and pickle on his toes/ He is a funny fellow
Imagine a six-year-old girl singing this song to a roomful of guests with everyone bursting into peals of laughter while she animatedly shakes her hands close to her face to suggest how crazy the boys are for her. Well, that��s Koel Mallick for you, singing about her love life when she didn��t understand a thing about love, infatuation and longing.
Twitching her nose and indulgently laughing at her childhood innocence, Koel says, ��Today, it seems so foolish. I don��t really think that this was a self-composed song. I must have heard it somewhere but didn��t quite grasp all the lyrics correctly. Otherwise, why on earth would I take fancy to a boyfriend who had ��cherry borry (what does that mean?) nose and pickle on his toes?��
If this anecdote sounds funny, the one where she first danced at a terrace party with an unknown guy from St Xavier��s is even more hilarious. ��My friends had told me that I should never refuse a guy if he asked me for a dance. I still have the red high-collared dress that I wore to the party. But, while I loved dancing, I ended up constantly looking at my watch. I remember the guy asking me whether I was waiting for someone. And guess what I had said? ��My chauffeur!�� He must have thought that I was planning to elope with my driver!��

No, Koel hadn��t revealed that the mad rush was because she had sought a permission to party for 30 minutes only. And this Cinderella of Mallickbari had instinctively, and quite cleverly so, blurted out a wrong number when her dancing partner had asked for her contact details. ��I couldn��t imagine an unknown guy calling up home and asking for me. What would Baba think?��
What would Baba, or perhaps, her family think, has always chartered the course of her life. She has always been so aware of her boundaries, and most importantly, never wanted to be a rebel with or without a cause. If at all there were certain unresolved conflicts, she��d pour her heart out to her classmates Sulakshana and Sukanya. ��While others would discuss boyfriends and parties, we��d talk about things a lot more
philosophical. Later on, when I went to Gokhale College to study psychology, I metamorphosed into an agony aunt,�� she says.
Unwed mothers, friends forced into physical relationships by their brothers-in-law �� Koel has patiently advised on all sorts of problems, cautiously not being judgmental or prone to giving utopian suggestions. ��While I had suggested that the girl reveal her brother-in-law��s true nature to her sister, I understood when she decided to just cut herself off without creating any tension in her sister��s family,�� she shrugs, while clearing her throat.
Her teachers were disappointed when Koel joined the film industry instead of pursuing further studies in psychology. But, life in tinsel world turned out to be a stark contrast and that was the first time she truly needed an agony aunt for herself. ��Baba would hardly ever talk about the industry and when he did, he��d always edit out the darker side. But once I joined the industry, people, who had till yesterday��s dateline been an epitome of goodness, would surprise me with their dubious distinctions. I��d be considered for roles only to hear that I had been dropped because someone has been recommending his girlfriend for the same. I still don��t know whether it was insecurity or jealousy that made the actor tease away my fashion designer with more money so that she could have my wardrobe.
Ma was so perturbed with the vicious looks this lady gave me at a party, trying, as it were, to say that she��d snatched my role! Casting couch is an open secret and many heroines don��t mind sleeping with anyone from a co-actor to a production manager! My only refuge then would be Antara, my soulmate from college. She��d help me come to terms with the paradoxes till one day I sat with Baba to discuss everything.��
And that��s when the lid came off the Pandora��s box. ��Baba told me how he had been duped by a director who had loaned money from him to book a scriptwriter and then overlooked Baba while casting for the same film. He spoke about how success had changed a director whom Baba had literally handheld in his days of financial distress. It dawned on me that getting hurt is a luxury that one can ill-afford in the industry. I just treat it as any other job.��
And as a job, Koel is doing pretty well these days what with films like Riingo��s Love, Rangan Chakraborty��s Bor Ashbe Ekhuni, and two untitled Haranath Chakraborty and Sujit Guha flicks in the pipeline. ��Without sounding arrogant, I know my careergraph will remain unaffected even if I don��t do intimate scenes,�� she smiles sardonically. But doesn��t she realize that sterilised roles also run the risk of limiting her repertoire now that she is keen on breaking her image of being the bubbly girl next-door? What about depicting mature
emotions that demand sensitive handling of the body? ��Definitely, I��d be keen on doing mature roles, which involve a lot of sensitivity.��
As the conversation draws to a close, we wonder why Koel doesn��t use her real name Rukmini? Does she know that in Hindu mythology Lord Krishna had heroically kidnapped Rukmini to finally get married to her? ��Oh! I know all that. People in the industry always knew me as Koel and that name stuck on. My school friends still call me Rukmini. I��ll feel very awkward if they address me as Koel,�� she blushes.
What if love hits her like a tsunami one day and her ��Krishna�� comes to kidnap her from her parents? ��Oh! God,�� she ducks, what she calls an embarrassing question. But what if she finds herself in the shoes of her Love co-star, Jisshu, who had to choose love over his parents in the film? ��That sounds so complicated. If such is the case, my parents will not want to see me unhappy by giving up my man.��
Doesn��t she feel incomplete not having felt an emotion that she has to emote with convincing ease on screen? ��Imagination can be more powerful than lived experiences. Love means trust, being non-judgmental and positive criticism. I��ve been through my share of crushes. If an infatuation gives such a high, I��m sure love will be a magical feeling. Of course, there have been occasions when I have even had to say no to a friend who genuinely fell for me. I prefer to speak my mind instead of getting someone��s hopes up by being silent. For me, love is about commitment and it needs to translate into marriage. Once I fall in love, there will be no looking back,�� she insists.
As of now, the guys of, well not ��just the neighbourhood��, are still crazy for her. It still remains to be seen when she��ll admit to being crazy for one!

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