I think after my first workshop with her and Siddharth, I felt this
word that sounds so terribly cheesy but like I felt at home
But with Deepika from the first exercise she was completely into it. Not even once she
questioned the duration of the workshop, duration of the exercise, the need of the
exercises. Later on, the set she didn't question any angles or any anything
No people want to watch what you are aching for. They want
to see what disturbs you, they want to see what causes butterflies in your stomach
Hi Dar, thank you for speaking to Pinkvilla. I hope I’m pronouncing your name right.
Oh yeah, it's amazing.
How are you? How have you been today?
I'm good, I’m great. How are you Sanjana?
I'm good too. So, thank you for taking the time out to speak to Pinkvilla. I think we've all
seen the trailer of Gehraiyaan and it looks amazing and I think people cannot wait to see
what's in store so I think I’d like to start by asking you that you've done a few Hindi films and
Gehraiyaan is like your first commercial, I mean your big commercial project. So how
different was the experience of working on Gehraiyaan from the other films?
I guess like because really working on this film and any other film is like the difference
working on this film or any other film. It's when you're entering a new place, it's always will
be new though. It's the same architecture, it still has windows, it has ceiling and it has floor
but each room will have something else right? I think this is how filmmaker feels when they
let's say or when he enters the new space of a script, it feels different yet it's something the
same. It still has actors, it still has structure of the story but something different every time
right, so I guess it was that of course, it was first time for me working not as a director but as
an intimacy director as well so that was something new but at the same time something very
familiar because the years that I spent in theatres and understanding the structure between
the workshops it was like kind of like work interlinked with all the skills that I had before so
it also felt like at home you know unique feeling when you're going and you're traveling all
over the world but somehow everywhere you feel at home, it's like that as well
You said there's something, that's one thing that's different and that sets apart the
project what would you say that is for Gehraiyaan. Was it the
cast? Was it the crew? Was it working with Shakun?
Yeah, I would definitely, my first choice would be Shakun. The answer is Shakun. And I was
to be honest I was hesitating to come on you know on the project because I didn't know how
with them my collaboration will happen with another director, with another creator and but
he was absolutely confident that it will work out and he was right and Shakun turned out to
be most collaborative, unique person with a very strong vision but at the same time with
flexibility to explore it more. To be curious about his own vision and just to see is there any
other tools how we can explore it more, so for me it was very inspiring to see that on the side
and of course his care for the crew and for his actors are truly remarkable so I would say that
was unique and of course the overall connections that you know everyone had with each
other and like and the politeness, you know
professionalism and respect that was very inspiring to see on the set
Yeah, okay. You know Shakun also said in one of his interviews that in this film intimacy has
been treated as a character and not just something that happens on screen
It's very poetic. Yes, he said that intimacy is a character so can you know elaborate a little about that?
I don't think I can come up with the better metaphor and came up with so absolutely great I
agree it is a character it's like the air needs to be charged right of the room that you enter
and you see two people feeling certain energy towards each other or exchanging certain
chemistry. So, the task was to create that charged air throughout on screen and that I would
say charged air is this invisible character itself which is this tender, intimate yet strong kind of
energies that we had to exchange with each other so that for the audience it will feel real, it
will not feel disturbing but it will just feel tender and inspiring
So, I think my next question would be how did you bring about that like you know we've
seen Deepika and Siddharth having these intense scenes even though it's you know just a
two- or three-minute trailer. So how did you go about that?
How do you bring that sense of comfort or that sense of intensity?
There are certain structures that we have in each and every profession that we follow to
make sure that we're able to deliver something. So, let's say let's compare intimacy direction
with skydiving right? And you're a sky diving instructor and you have person who really
wants to skydive and he's not scared of the heights but of course uncomfortable we're
not I guess built to fly but we want to fly. We want to experience that fall and you as an
instructor you need to describe experience that person will explore right you will know it
okay fine first we have these tools, we have the parachute, we have the bag, we have the
plane. At this height you will jump I’ll be there for you. So as an intimacy director you
are first describing the structure right of your process which usually for me the first stage is
always having conversation like this with your actress and going through the script scene by
scene, shot by shot, shot breakdown by short breakdown right what are we taking, which angles
we're taking even if actors are falling asleep great, let them fall asleep but finish the shot
breakdown description so they know what are we going for, we know how much they will be
involved, they know how physically it will be demanding for them or emotionally. Then on
this stage you discuss everything that they're uncomfortable with or they don't like, can we
replace it, why did you not like it, can we find the solution to that, you have the same
discussion also with your intimacy coordinator as well as the intimacy coach who will help
you to design the right workshops and intimacy coordinator will have separate discussion with
the actress on what they will need on set, what they don't need on set, what will make them
comfortable, etc, etc. In the way you're creating these cushions of different people who help
actress to express themselves right instead of just saying everything director or the producer
you have several layers of everyone being comfortable in the way so once everything is
discussed we have 3, 5, 7, 12 days hopefully one month, that's a dream of workshops that you
have, you're taking your actors to which are based also on their replies from your first meeting
or second meeting or anyone when you describe this the scene. What they uncomfortable
with, what difficulties this they had so you will try to design exercises in a way that will help
them to overcome those difficulties. For example, there is a scene when let’s say he just hugs
her but she feels very vulnerable how what does it mean? Vulnerability is just a word. But
what does it contain? What kind of feeling? How our body feels to it? So, then we are going
through physical exercises, understanding what is our body you know, understanding that the
intimacy choreography is the same thing as dance choreography. There is nothing more
intimate or more it shouldn't be more disturbing than dance choreography right because just
our body doing certain things so to break that down, to understand how our body functions.
Then to understand how our mentality functions for example if I hold like this someone's
hand, I feel vulnerable but holding a water bottle I feel something else, why? Because it's the
same holding reflex right so we're trying to bring that, we're trying to have a mix of exercises
which are playing with our in a way with our psychology, with our physicality and with our
of course chemistry with each other and then once that's
been done, we're choreographing
several scenes. Let's see if there is a scene of, I don't know them just like he's kissing her on
her cheek and she falls from the bed you know like oh they're just there you know holding
each other, right? How to do that? So that everyone feels comfortable and everyone knows
it's just mechanical movements as mechanical as when we dance for example right so we do
that and then of course when we start shooting, we're bringing some exercises from our
workshop stage before the shoot certain rituals that we do before each scene to
remember the chemistry that we had during the workshops so it's a very gradual process of making someone
feel comfortable with each other, someone understand
that there is nothing but professional connection, there
is nothing more than just our body movements
Okay so anyway so does this you know like you explain the
process so you mean that every move is well thought out and
does it kind of get mechanical after a point?
It needs to become a mechanical. It first needs to be mechanical; we need to understand that
our body is just the body and we are separate from our body whatever our body feels
sometimes it's not what we actually are. And we need to play around with that in a way it's
also some meditation techniques, understanding that who are we. That we're not our body,
we're not our mind, we're not our thoughts, we're something else and what is that something I
think we need to first make it mechanical and then on the basis of other exercises which
creates more chemistry, more connection, more trust with each other then we can create that
to be able to recreate the same scene over and over again because at the end of the day, what
is love right? Or what is the emotions that we call love when we look on the screen? It's trust
right and to create trust between the actress is what the task of intimacy director and intimacy
coordinators are. So, they can trust each other because if you have trust you can on the basis
of this emotion you can create hatred and love and
passion and any other emotions that you need as a director.
It's very well said. Deepika said during one of her interviews that the intimacy in the film is
not meant to titillate the audience or to grab eyeballs so
you as an intimacy director, how are you so mindful and where do you draw the line?
Oh, it's a great question. I think my line lies in what comes through for my actors and what
they can push themselves to do and what they can't and the most important thing is the
purpose, the purpose of every damn thing. If I’m having a kiss on the screen, I need to
understand why that kiss is there? If I want this to be more passionate, I can't just say come
on guys more, why it's more passionate? What does it mean more passionate? Why do I need
more passion? Right, because I think it's actually like sometimes when we watch even let's
say a little one item number and you have a close-up of someone's I don't know navel right it
would be as kind of like disturbing as anything else right but depends how you will treat it,
which angle you are taking, what's the purpose it has in the narrative because every time I feel you know like
seeing someone as a kiss or like hug because there's no purpose they just like do it and you
subconsciously as an audience are always looking for a narrative and therefore for a reason,
you're looking for the meaning behind that choice and if you don't find that meaning, you feel
for the sake of doing it or for the sake of eyeballs. But I know the good narrative and
the good scenes are not the ones that are explicit but the ones that has purpose because even
just the close-up of someone just like holding your you know hand very tightly or your
shoulder very tightly it's much more intimate than scene in a
bed and then understanding that and playing around with that is what the real storytelling is
Yeah, okay. What was it like working with Deepika? Like she's done this before. She's
obviously done romantic films before but I think we also
haven't seen her in this space. So how was your experience of working with her?
Again not to sound cheesy but I think after my first workshop with her and Siddharth I felt
this word that sounds so terribly cheesy but like I felt at home you know I felt that that's why
I’m doing what I’m doing, that's why I’m here, that's why I enter this industry because when
you work with someone really professional and very passionate about it you feel so I don't
know so grateful to the profession that you are representing and of course I didn't know what
the response would be and sometimes you can be really like nice and noble, polite person but
you won't see sense in something that you're doing. But with Deepika from the first exercise
she was completely into it not even once she questioned the duration of the workshop,
duration of the exercise, the need of the exercises. Later on, the set she didn't question any
angles or any anything and that was very strong. At the same time if she would feel
uncomfortable doing something she would say that
in a very polite way and we'll find ways how to solve that so I
guess that's collaborative spirit you can see also on screen
Right. Okay I think I’ll ask my last question now. You know romance and intimacy in Hindi
films has come a long way. So, do you think that Hindi films
need to kind of re-look at how intimacy is treated on screen?
See it's always about the metaphors that you're using if someone uses metaphors of flowers
it's also beautiful because this was his vision of the scene. If someone is going with slightly
more realistic approach because that creator feels that this is what represents me, this is what
represents how I feel, represents what I want to in my life, this is amazing. If you don't want
to show it at all because you think it's not who you are this is also amazing. We can't
just follow certain tendencies. Let's see if one extremely successful film will have a lot of
swears in it or explicit scenes even, I will have it because people want to watch it no people
want to watch what you are aching for. They want to see what disturbs you, they want to see
what causes butterflies in your stomach because if you will create a film that creates
butterflies in your stomach on the basis of your experience, it
will create butterflies even more butterflies in my stomach while watching your film.
Okay cool. Thank you, thank you. It was lovely talking to you.
Thank you for taking the time out.
Thank you for great questions, I really enjoyed it.