HYDERABAD: Months after allegations were raised about the existence of casting couch in Telugu film industry, a district court in Chicago has cracked whip on a US-based Telugu couple who were running a sex racket in the country. The couple are alleged to have lured small-time Telugu actresses who visited the US for cultural programmes into sex work.
They were taken into custody in April and their children are in the care of child welfare officials in Virginia. The matter came to light after the a 42-page criminal complaint filed in the Court was unsealed, and was reported in detail by Chicago Tribune. The couple Kishan Modugumudi(34) , a businessman and his wife Chandra(31), who, in the past co-produced a few Telugu films.
As per the report in the Chicago Tribune, clients were charged up to $3000 for each sexual encounter. Investigation revealed that Modugumudi also threatened to kill one of the actresses if she leaked any information while in the US. He threatened her saying it was easy to harm her as she was not a “big actress.”
While in the US, on temporary visas, at least five actresses were sometimes forced to stay in a dingy, two-story apartment building waiting for their next “date.”