Robbie Grewal asked me to strip!
The casting couch, though not openly admitted to, is not a new phenomenon in Bollywood. Foreign model Hazel, who has also done commercials in India, is debuting with Robbie Grewals Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar opposite actor Ruslan Mumtaz. But this film came to her after years of waiting and an experience she had three years ago, which put her on guard regarding the film industry.
Hazel recounts, I have always been fascinated by Bollywood. I have a mix of Indian, British, Irish and Austrian blood in me. I find everything about India is cool. I started my Bollywood career while I was in Thailand. I was an extra in the movie Janasheen. I then moved to India to become a fulltime actor.
But Hazel got a rude shock during her very first audition. It was a nightmare. I had no knowledge of Hindi then. The director said that I could audition in English, she states. The director told Hazel that she would be playing a supermodel in the film. I was taken aback because I am just about five feet and three inches tall and theywere offering me the role of a super model! exclaims Hazel.
She continues, The director told me that the opening scene would have me stepping out of a swimming pool in a bikini. He said he wanted to see how I looked in one. I told him that I did not have a bikini with me and couldnt audition in one.
Hazel adds, I was shocked when he asked me to strip and pose in my undergarments instead. Not one to create a scene, Hazel just left the place and never contacted the director again. But this is not an isolated incident in tinsel town.
Shakira Mebarak (full name: Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll) was born February 2, 1977, in Barranquilla, Colombia, into a poor family. Her mother was a native Colombian and her father was of Lebanese descent, and so as a child Shakira soaked up music from both cultures; she also listened heavily to English-language rock & roll, listing her favorite bands in later interviews as Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Police, the Cure, and Nirvana. Shakira wrote her first song at age eight, began entering (and winning) talent competitions at age ten, and started learning the guitar at age 11; one story runs that around this age, she was kicked out of her school choir for singing too forcefully. In 1990, at age 13, Shakira moved to Bogotá in hopes of pursuing a modeling career, but wound up signing a record deal with Sony's Colombian division instead. Her 1991 debut album, Magia (Magic), was comprised of songs she'd written over the past five or six years, including some of her earliest efforts. Although it didn't break internationally, the record started to make a name for her in her home country. Dissatisfied with the pop inclinations of the follow-up, 1993's Peligro (Danger), Shakira changed direction for a time, joining the cast of the Colombian soap opera El Oasis in 1994.
