One would think that Amit R Sharma has a flair for telling stories about lust, or the lack of it. After all, his last directorial venture, Badhaai Ho (2018), saw a couple reviving their romance after decades of being married.

“Badhaai Ho could have actually been a Lust Story! A lady from Kolkata had called me, saying that while watching the film, her husband and she held hands in a theatre for the first time in 30 years,” he recounts.

Yet, the director admits his first reaction was hesitation when Lust Stories 2 was offered to him. “All of us are [only beginning to] know the term ‘lust’. So, I was [hesitant], thinking, ‘Me? Really?’ That said, I was sure that if I got an exciting story, I would make it,” explains Sharma, who is joined by filmmakers Sujoy Ghosh, Konkona Sen Sharma and R Balki in the Netflix anthology.

For his segment, Sharma cracked the story of a woman, whose husband is attracted to their help. The next challenge was to get the casting right. While Kajol was his first choice for the central role, he was unsure whether she would be interested in it.

“I was doubtful if she would say yes. But to get Kajol and Kumud Mishra as a couple was unbelievable. They made my life so easy, giving me [a far superior] performance than I [anticipated]. It was a difficult casting to crack. My team and I had multiple discussions, but the moment we paired these two in our head, it made sense.”