Of late, a number of filmstars have opened up about casting couch- a stigma that is associated with the entertainment industry including Bollywood, Tollywood and Mollywood.

Several actors have valiantly talked about it in recent times, some have turned a blind eye to it, while some others have had to give up on their career to stay away from this vicious circle.

Actress Aditi Rao Hydari too has been a victim of casting couch. Hydari in a special interaction with The Sunday Guardian talked about the prevalence of casting couch in the industry and the hefty price she had to pay for taking a stand against it.

“I have also been in this situation, but I was able to stand up to it, make my decision and move away. I did lose work and I cried about it. I didn’t regret it but I cried about it because I felt so upset that this was true and this is how girls are treated. I was like, how dare someone speak to me like that," the actress told the daily.

After refusing to agree to put up with anything like this, Aditi was unemployed for nearly eight months.

But the actress asserted that the incident only made her stronger.

"After the incident I didn’t get work for about eight months, but I feel that that decision made me stronger in my intention about the kind of work I wanted to do. The year 2013 was difficult for me as it was also the year I lost my father, but from 2014 onwards everything kind of fell into place. Sometimes you need to see a situation, deal with it, get out and be very comfortable with it, and that’s how I felt. You need to be comfortable with the consequences and have no regrets,” she was quoted as saying by the daily.

Aditi Rao Hydari, who debuted with the Malayalam film Prajapathi in 2006, had to tread a long way before getting recognition in 2011 with Sudhir Mishra's romantic-thriller Yeh Saali Zindagi.

The Wazir actress, who has been in the industry for over a decade now, has starred in a number of films and played various supporting roles.

Aditi is the face of several brands and was last seen sharing screen space with Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in the period drama Padmaavat, where she essayed the role of Mehrunisa.