Payal Rohatgi Says: I'm a kid, not a piece of meat: In 2004, she was a Page 3 regular. In 2011, she has accused Dibakar Banerjee of asking her to lift her T-shirt so that he can have a better view of her stomach. Zup?
When I SMS Payal Rohatgi with an interview request she directs me to her PR agent. It is a far cry from 2004 when she casuaally picked up the phone and conceded to spending a day in her Bandra pad for a fun piece: "Payal Rohatgi gives you 10 tips on how to become a Page 3 celeb."
But a lot has happened in the interim between Payal the Page 3 gal and Payal the struggling actress: for starters, from being a model, who worked with big timers such as Prahlad Kakar, Abhinay Deo and Priyadarshan, Payal became a reality television candidate with Bigg Boss (Season 2) in 2008. She even survived a physically abusive relationship with Rahul Mahajan, our homegrown mini-Charlie Sheen. "We used to be part of a group that used to hang out around 2002. But Rahul would hit me, then he'd cuddle me. He did that twice. After that I left him," she says, when asked if the relationship has scarred her in any way.
It was a small-time glamour of sorts for the Ahmedabad-bred Payal, innocuous but practical; she moved out of her party-heady paying guest accommodation in Bandra and invested in a flat. She recently paid off the last installment of her housing loan, thus becoming a house-owing Bombayite in a neighbourhood where half of the population is constantly threatening to arrive: Yari Road.
But circa the past few weeks Payal Rohatgi has acquired a Preeti Jain-like notoriety, even if Payal is quick to add, "Wrong, Preeti Jain was a nobody when she accused Madhur Bhandarkar of casting couch abuse. I am 10 films old, even if they are all flops. I have always had a career, be it modeling, reality TV, or even my not-so-great films."
A month ago, Payal accused Love, Sex aur Dhoka director Dibakar Banerjee of asking her to lift her T-shirt and show him her stomach; he allegedly was at her place on the pretext of discussing a role in Shanghai, his next venture. "You can't f**k your buddy, if you are giving her a role!" screamed Rohatgi in an interview to the media. This stirred quite a hornet's nest among a chummy triumvirate of indie filmmakers, starring Banerjee the accused, DevD director Anurag Kashyap, who vehemently defended Banerjee in the wake of the scandal, and Sudhir Mishra, the eldest and newest entry in Payal's Hell Hath No Fury scrapbook. Mishra, it turns out, completed this axis of evil when he spoke against Payal after she dropped the casting couch bomb. Enraged, she sent him the following SMS-es:
A You don't know what happened between me and Dibakar. I would appreciate if you refrain from your comments, as I also can talk.
B Lay off.
C I don't want to work with you. So don't spoil my image.
D Sorry for my last comments. I am a girl, not a piece of meat. I must have begged 100 times for an audition from you but you didn't listen. But please don't bitch about me as now I won't shut up.
E Now, I hope it's clear.
Fourteen days later he filed an FIR at the Versova Police Station in response to these.
When we arrive, a young girl, a PR agent, opens the door. After ushering us inside, she sits on a sofa, next to yet another PR agent. Payal's chief PR agent, Avantika, is downstairs, handling 15 journalists, mainly from the electronic media, who have been summoned for an impromptu press conference to deal with the Mishra FIR crisis.
On yet another sofa is perched a naaniji, an endearing figure in a salwaar kameez and white hair, a bit baffled at the clamour in the flat. Then Payal herself steps out in wedges, grey T-shirt, blue jeans, a strange shade of pink lipstick. A maid brings out a glass of water and sets it on the table.
"The press conference was called because I think people need to know that I'm not crazy as these guys are going on and on about." But does she not feel that with her increased belligerence she might be painting herself into a corner? "Well, look, I felt hurt, so I acted in a certain way. But what's really making me angry is how these directors, all men, are saying that I'm nuts, that I'm doing all this for publicity. Why aren't they asking if Sudhir Mishra is desperate for publicity in filing an FIR after 14 days for SMS-es that are not even threatening? As for Dibakar, we were friends, but he is the one who has issues. And Anurag Kashyap talking about me? He's acting like Dibakar's official spokesperson. I don't even know the guy! Why is he commenting on me? His wife left him, and then he's had an affair with Kalki, who later acted in his film. I think that is an example of the casting couch. It's basically like birds of the same feather."
Yet Payal is not harbouring any hopes for a feminist uprising in Bollywood with her sensational revelations last month. "Actresses in this industry do not talk to one another. No actress has called me. The only guy who called me was Deepak Tijori, who thought I had done a brave thing."
I point to her grandmother. Does she live with you? "No, she's here to give me support because of what's going on. Yeh sab bakvaas hain na, naaniji!"
Payal talks in a consistent tone for the most part, but when worked up her throat gets parched, her posture tense. I request her to drink some water from a glass that was brought out for me. Payal drains it. The naaniji lets the information sink in, then a little later echoes, "Haan, yeh sab bakvaas hain."
In between her breakup with Rahul Mahajan and the casting couch skirmish Payal had done obscure stuff: Four Play, a play "with a very suggestive title starring Rajesh Khattar and directed by Vandana Sajnani." TV shows such as Zor Ka Jhatka and Comedy Circus. A theatre workshop with Quasar Thakore Padamsee. There is clear and present danger of running out of time in an industry that is not kind to women on the wrong side of 30. Is she worried?
"I feel that God has a plan for me. That all this is part of something better that is to come my way. Lots of things are going on in my mind. I'm thinking of running off to LA."
