Casting is a tough business and requires much intelligence, and I am connected with many casting directors who are genuine and I have worked through them, however in last few years casting has become a job which people think requires average intelligence and anyone can do it, nontheless to say, it has inspited many thugs to also become casting directors as they see it a platform to make money and run away.
Aspiring actors rely heavily on the casting information available through whatsapp groups, facebook groups, facebook pages, word of mouth and direct calls from production house and casting agencies. The last two are undobetedely the most reliable ones but still many actors use the other sources as much to get casting information which makes social media an easy platform for fake casting directors.
With my little experience in this arena, I have developed some understanding of how to spot out a fake casting director, and this formula works well for me, just wanted to share with a wider audience…
So here you go
1. Genuine casting directors never publish all the details in their very first message or you can say information blast. They never mention the detail of each and every character and stuff like audition scripts, because all this is for a later stage and is subject to your fitting the character
2. Casting directors will barely put multiple casting details in one message, unless these are of similar nature, as it dilutes the sole purpose and makes it confusing
3. Genuine casting directors will have intelligent people in team who possess good command on language and they wont write URGENT as URJENT, so when you see such mistake more than ones in the message, be alarmed, ofcourse we will give room for one or two occassional errors but be careful of pattern
4. Genuine casting directors will share the venue details at most, but not necessarily all the way to reach there there and bus numbers, as they have much to do
5. Genuine casting directors solely go by talent and they do not accept or extend any favors of any kind
6. Only fake casting directors use words like GUARANTEE of work, since its never in their will only to cast someone, since the client has a final say
7. Genuine casting directors never take any money upfront. However, there are some genuine coordinators who take one time registration charges for assurance of work, they are exceptions. But such coordinators are few and you must check their credentials before deciding to pay
8. Most genuine casting is done in western suburbs and bandra to an extent, including a few areas in cenral and south mumbai, since the actors crowd reside in these areas, hence you must verify the genuinity of a casting happening in far areas like for eg. dombivali before you decide to go there
9. Last but not the least, good casting directors and production houses have both quality and quantity of data and they will never post viral messages in any xyz groups, but only in a few geuine ones. You will barely see yash raj banner or balaji to be posting viral casting messages in random groups, if you see so, it should be alarming and you must check for its authenticity
10. Casting is a full time business, and takes time, interest and passion to be built over time, and it cant be built like a magic castle over night. Hence be watchful of ACTOR cum CASTING DIRECTORS and any other mixed professions. Ofcourse, there can always be exceptions and you must apply your own senses and check for its authenticity
11. Genuine casting information is never shared through posters, hoardings and print outs behind auto rickshaws and buses. You can see many such near station areas, beware!
12. Acting training institutes can never get you a role, the fake ones can barely even train you. Beware of such false promises too
And there are many other ways to know who is fake and who is not.
THESE ARE MY PERSONAL VIEWS AND I MAY OR MAY NOT BE COMPLETELY RIGHT AT SOME PLACES, PLEASE TREAT THIS MERELY AS INDICATIONS.
I hope you find this information useful, if you do, please share it ahead, specially with new comers. ☺
Regards
Satyen
Amir Hashmi 