Once upon a time Bollywood relied on the bushes and the bees to show desire. With the pandemic putting an end to kissing-vissing, will films and TV shows have to press rewind on bold content?
Mohua Das (BOMBAY TIMES; June 7, 2020)

Fear of a different sort of Coronavirus casualty is looming large over film and TV folks — the death of the steamy sex scene in the wake of a pandemic and strict social distancing protocol imposed by an official directive from the cultural affairs ministry that allows shooting to resume within the two weeks but with a compulsory two-metre distance between members of the cast and crew.

At a time when erotic content was sweeping through the Indian entertainment space, boldly aided by streaming platforms, the future of screen intimacy suddenly seems precarious. In April, filmmaker Shoojit Sircar had pondered the same questions in an Instagram post, where he wrote: “How the cinema world conducts shooting intimate scenarios (has) to be seen and planned, after all this is over. Especially the intimate kissing/hugging scenes.”

There is always editing and imagination to rely on, says Prabhleen Kaur Sandhu, producer of Mastram, based on the life of an erotica writer. “Two actors on screen can be made to look closer than they actually are. The build-up of the foreplay is more sensuous than the act itself and, therefore, camera angles and clever edits will become all the more important,” explains Sandhu, pointing at the industry’s need for “intimacy directors or coordinators” — a fast growing tribe in Hollywood fuelled by the MeToo movement — who help artistes and productions navigate everything from hugs and kisses to nudity and faux sex.

Before the pandemic hit, the makers of Mastram — a show on MX Player (disclosure: it is a Times Group company) — had flown in Amanda Cutting who had worked as an intimacy coordinator on a prequel of ‘Game of Thrones’. Cutting told TOI, “Some of the best intimacy is seeing the desire in a person’s eyes, the quiver of a lip, a hand that moves subtly. Intimacy isn’t really about the simulated sex. It is about the story, relationship and moments that cause it to build. As an intimacy coordinator, I have tools to trick an eye to think something is happening when in fact it isn’t.”

Sandhu says Cutting’s team came with intimacy kits that provide thick covers that help choreograph scenes in a way that looks real while protecting actors from unwanted touch. “Something like that can be useful at this time. If makers of erotic shows bring in intimacy experts for future shoots, I don’t see a reason for compromising on scenes that might take away from the essence of a show. Kissing might still be problematic, she admits, “because it’s direct contact and can still transmit the virus.”

Amid several shoulds and shouldn’ts, one thing that is hanging like a double-edged sword on actors and directors alike is whether time-honoured metaphors — two flowers brushing against each other, actors disappearing behind a giant tree to depict a liplock or a trembling bed and gyrating car to simulate sex — might make a comeback.

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, known to settle for an ‘A’ certificate rather than butcher subjects and scenes dealing with lovemaking, pornography and infidelity, is predictably concerned. “There had been a paradigm shift in content for films and web series in recent years. They pushed boundaries and several taboos were lifted. Now with the Covid crisis and no cure in sight, I’ve been discussing with fellow filmmakers about how we can shoot romantic moments — be it on a bed or at a party. Technology can help create a crowd but what about two characters hugging? Can we go back to the primitive days in which flowers and birds symbolised intimacy?” he frets.

Vikram Bhatt, who has been churning out erotic thrillers since the ‘90s and continues to break conventions, feels a return to the chastity of “two doe-eyed lovers” is an “absurd proposition”. “It’ll be bizarre and comical if that happened! I don’t think the current generation of viewers would even understand it,” argues Bhatt, given that romances no longer end with the heroine falling into the arms of her hero but big dollops of straightforward sex.

“At the same time, intimacy applies not only to kissing or sex scenes, but also to a range of human emotions portrayed through physical touch. If one thing is allowed, the others will have to be too,” reasoned Bhatt. Emphasising on rapid testing kits to keep cameras rolling, he dwelled on single location shoots to keep a film or TV show contained in scale without necessarily constricting the story.

“Today you can’t cheat audiences with obliqueness,” agrees Vishnu Mohta, co-founder of the Bengali video streaming platform Hoichoi that has about eight shows with bold erotic content that have been given a raincheck until December when the hope is that things will begin to normalise. “Shows today are built around reality, therefore body language matters. The larger challenge is proximity and how much can you rely on cheat shots and CG?”

Mekala Krishnaswamy, who finished shooting a social drama that involved intimate moments before lockdown happened, highlights why sexual intimacy is increasingly a part of the vernacular. “Our show is about a guy who is down in the dumps when his life turns around. It’s not an erotica but does have intimate scenes because they’re part of communicating a character’s headspace and emotion, not for titillation,” she explains, while speculating on ways in which an intimate sequence could still be shot “after isolating the characters for 10 days, getting them tested, having bathing arrangements on set and a minimal crew.”

But even as lockdown lifts, sanitation is ramped up and directors get creative with how they show intimacy, actors remain perturbed. “No matter how many tests and temperature checks happen, you don’t know where your co-actors have been or who they’ve met. I do eroticas and most of my shows involve kissing. I’m scared and worried,” admits Priya Banerjee, known for turning up the heat with her steamy act in shows like Twisted, Hello Mini, Bekaboo and Baarish across OTT platforms. “While I hope there’ll be honesty between actors involved in intimate scenes, I have already spoken to my manager and producers about eliminating kissing scenes in future projects. If it isn’t needed, I am going to put my foot down. It’s not just about audiences, it’s about life and survival.”

Not alarmed by the possibility of birds and bees stealing her thunder, Priya beams: “You know, I’ll be the happiest if flowers and bushes return! Intimacy is anyway overwhelming so this would free me of any worry, my parents would be happy and the florists would be back in business!”

For the first time, a web series has roped in an intimacy co-ordinator, Amanda Cutting, to create safe working spaces for artistes
Nuzhat Aziz (BOMBAY TIMES; May 17, 2020)

Whether it is a mega or medium budget film, a web film or web series, shooting intimate scenes for the screen is a challenge for filmmakers. It needs to be directed and filmed aesthetically and with sensitivity, apart from creating a comfortable space for the actors in the spotlight. So, when producer Prabhleen Kaur roped in intimacy coordinator, Amanda Cutting, for the recently launched web series Mastram, it was a refreshing initiative. The series — an adapted biopic based on the erotic writer, Mastram — needed to depict sex in an unrestrained manner and Amanda was flown in from Canada to help actors feel confident and reduce the emotional bleed-off that can happen during the shoot of intimate scenes. Excerpts from an interview…

How difficult was it to break the language barrier and understand the intricacies of intimacy suited for the Indian sensibility with regard to erotica?
Mastram, the author, has a cult following in India and it was important to do this in a manner that paid homage to that. I got some of his works translated into English to have a stronger idea of the context of the show, and the poetry of Mastram. It was important for me to understand how Mastram creates these sensuous scenes, and the language that he utilises in order to depict them. It is erotica, and there’s nothing that you can avoid in that, but it could have gone incredibly graphic in a way that felt distasteful. But I really feel it was incredibly, elegantly done.

How important is it to have intimacy coordinators on board a film set, especially in a post #MeToo era?
I am seeing a massive uptake in production houses wanting intimacy coordinators on their sets. I think people are seeing the difference that it makes. Unfortunately, there is a disease of mediocrity out there. Because we are trying to pump out so much content so quickly that we forget that the artistes are human beings. I feel artistes are not confident when there is no clear communication between the production unit and the performers.

Do you think the way we shoot intimate scenes will change in the post-Coronavirus pandemic future?
Making sure that we are not exposing people unnecessarily is critical. It could also mean that there is a revival of renaissance flirting on screen. Something that I loved about the Bollywood films of the 60s and 70s was a lot of the tantalising eye contact and the sensual dancing used as build-up. Indians really know how to flirt on film. With challenges comes an amazing collective creativity and it might even be something that’s more exciting to watch.
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ON THE MOST CHALLENGING SCENES

“The Kama Sutra scene (with Isha Chhabra and Anshuman Jha) with candles was incredible. We had very specific positions that we wanted to embrace in that scene and Tara Alisha Berry was brilliant because she is so flexible that it actually allowed us to pull out even more interesting positions. It was also challenging because we only had that much time on set.

The motorcycle scene was a challenge because the actors were being vulnerable, and doing something that, on camera, appears that it is public. However, we made sure there was no actual public perceiving those actions. We had a lot of security, and massive big curtains that basically covered and created a big black box around the area. The content that we were creating was 4-5 minutes long, after an average 4-6 hours of shooting.”
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FILMING AN INTIMATE SCENE

- First, we understood the performers’ personal boundaries.

- We then had a workshop with the performers where we cleared their consent with each other, and went through the storyboard so that they knew exactly the sexual positions, and the angles they were being filmed from, including the type of lighting we were using.

- Next, we walked through the choreography, as that’s really what it is. It is no different than a Bollywood musical dance sequence.