Niti Taylor recalls casting couch ordeal with Telugu film director: “You will have to sleep with me for it this time”

Television actress Niti Taylor has opened up about a disturbing experience from the early years of her acting career, recalling an alleged casting couch incident involving the director of her debut Telugu film.

In a candid conversation with Hauterfly, the actress revealed that the filmmaker approached her for another project after they had completed their first film together, but the conversation took an unexpected and deeply uncomfortable turn.

Recounting the incident, Niti said the director allegedly made an inappropriate demand in exchange for offering her another role.

Describing how she reacted to the proposition, the actress said, "The director who did the first film with me called me for another movie when we were done with it.

Then he said, 'But you will have to sleep with me for it this time.' You do not realise, you do not know how to react.

I just cut the call, I blocked his number, I called up my mom, and I'm like, imagine that buddha, old man." Niti further explained that although she had previously noticed the filmmaker behaving in ways she found questionable around other women, she had not anticipated being subjected to such a proposition herself.

The incident left her so shocked that she decided to distance herself from the film industry.

Reflecting on how the experience affected her professional choices, she added, "I saw him with other chicks and stuff like that.

I never knew when he would try this with me.

That's when I decided I would never do any movies ever again.

I was just taken aback, and I only blocked him.

I did not tell this to anyone because I was zapped.

You just come like..." Niti made her Telugu film debut in 2012 with the romantic drama Mem Vayasuku Vacham, directed by Trinadha Rao Nakkina and produced by Bekkam Venugopal.

Following the experience she described, the actress shifted her focus towards television, where she went on to establish herself as a familiar face among Indian audiences.