Director Anurag Kashyap on Sunday shared the screenshot of a 'casting call' for Sacred Season 3 on his Instagram account, calling it fake and warning people of such frauds. Kashyap clarified that there is no third sequel of Sacred Games releasing, and that the person behind the fake casting call is a 'scamster'.
"This man rajbeer_casting is a scamster. Please report him. There is no season 3 of Sacred games happening. I am filing an FIR against this person," Kashyap wrote on Instagram.
Fake casting calls are quite prevalent not only in Indian film industries but across the global film world. They harp on the search for opportunities by struggling actors.
A sponsored Instagram account "rajbeer_casting", which is now deactivated, had posted a story on the social media platform which claimed that the casting call for Season 3 of Sacred Games has begun. The Instagram story made casting calls for female actors in different age groups who should be comfortable with "bold roles".
"Hello All Finally the Opportunity has come Casting for Sacred Games 3 Netflix Series Direct - Anurag Kashyap Female 20-27 years To play lead Role Must be ok with bold scenes Female 20-28 years Second lead to play dancer Must be ok with bold scenes Female 30-40 years To play village aunt Must be ok with bold scenes (sic)….," read the Instagram story posted by the account "rajbeer_casting".
It doesn't take long to make out that the casting call is fake, as it is written in a careless manner, riddled with grammatical errors. The account was soon deactivated after people from the film industry including Kashyap started calling it out.
BOOM found out that the person behind this fake account was impersonating Rajbir Singh Anand, an established casting director who has worked for several movies like 420 IPC, Project 9191, Sandwiched Forever, Tere Liye Bro, The Little Magician and over 300 television commercials. Anand also has his own IMdb page.
Anand told BOOM that this is not a singular incident. "This account has duped quite a few aspiring actors in my name," he said. Anand filed a formal complaint on Monday at the Versova police station against the man behind this account whose identity is not yet confirmed. In the complaint, which he has also shared on his official Instagram account 'iamrajbiranand', he mentioned the mobile numbers that he had received from the actors duped by the man who was impersonating him. The casting director said he was also going to register a complaint at the cyber police station of Mumbai.
"I am the victim of this online scam by this person who is fraudulently and dishonestly making use of these online platforms to cheat people for their money using my name," Anand stated in the formal complaint and also in an Instagram post.
Anand mentions in the complaint that the man had uploaded pictures/videos of projects that he had worked on. A number of actors have approached Anand after being duped by the man, saying that they have been fooled. Anand also stated in the complaint that recently the man had put up a post for an audition call for Sacred Games Season 3 and asked many female actors for their unclothed pictures.
Anand also shared the screenshot of a GooglePay transaction between an actor and some Rahul Suri on December 20, 2021. The actor told Anand that he came across a casting call from the account 'rajbeer_casting' and responded to it. The person who was impersonating Rajbir Singh Anand asked the actor to pay him Rs 1,000 for the audition. GooglePay showed that the number to which the actor transferred the money was of some Rahul Suri. When the actor and Anand tried to call on the number, it was unreachable.
Even though such fake casting calls are busted by directors and producers frequently, people come across and fall prey to them time and again. "How do I know if a casting call is legit" is one of the top searches on Google, and many filmmakers have answered such queries on platforms like Quora.