At the age of 23, actor Zeeshan Khan was working on his first TV show for which he was getting 3,000 rupees per day. However, to get his hard earned money, Khan had to come across his first predator, who did not give Khan’s stipend. “I won’t take the guy’s name but he was the head of this talent management agency and I was very patient with him. He would keep stalling me and not giving my money. One fine day, I just told him, ‘Give me my money, man. You’re running a company, but you can’t afford to pay me 16 or 18,000.’ He was so furious,” he recalls.
Khan, who is almost a decade old in the industry, has come across several such predators, a few tried tricking him for the moolahs, and others manipulated him for sexual favors. “A lot, I have met people who have thrown themselves on me, given me big names, ‘isko maine banaya’. I never wanted to go that path, the one they wanted me to go. I heard a lot about this and I also have friends who have gone ahead and done those things for work and everything. For me, I had it in my heart that when I sleep at night. I want my soul to be at peace. I don’t want to sleep at night with the thought that I have done something and if it comes out,” Khan shares.
While sharing one of the incidents, Khan recalls meeting a casting director, popular in the TV fraternity at his office. “He asked me to show me my body. So I said, I’ll send you pictures and everything. But then he was like people usually edit pictures, so just remove your t-shirt. I was fine with removing my tee. And did so. But then he wanted me to show my legs. He asked me to drop my pants. I denied. I told him, you can see my legs from my jeans. He was like, ‘Tere jaise bohot ayee hai and do mahine ke baad they have asked ki jo chahiye karwalo bas kaam dilwa do. And I have said no to them. Remember that you have said no to me and you will regret it. I would rather live with that regret of saying no to you than the regret of saying yes to you,” the Kumkum Bhagya actorshare. Years after the episode Khan bumped into the casting director at a party.
Another episode that Khan faced was during the launch party of the show Class of 2022. The actor met a female friend of his, who introduced him to a fashion designer. “When I went to hug him, he tried to kiss me on my lips but I swiftly moved away and he kissed me on my cheek. My vibe dropped immediately. I caught him and told him, ‘Don’t you dare try this with me again. I will drag you out of this party in front of everyone and I will beat the shit out of you’. He went all apologetic,” Khan shares.
The manipulations don’t just end at parties and rooms. “People still approach you indirectly,” he shares. The Lock Upp alum admits he was once indirectly offered to be a stripper at a party. “Trust me there, there’s so much more. There are people who will call you under the guise of event organisers. They will tell you about the event and later it turns out that the whole event is a front for a party. Then once you reach there they will tell you to dance in boxers and stuff. People have also reached out to me,” he laments.