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EXCLUSIVE: Intimacy coordinator Aastha recalls working with Deepika Padukone in Gehraiyaan; 'She is by far...'
In an exclusive interview with Pinkvilla, Aastha Khanna Bhardwaj, an intimacy director, opened up about her experience of working with Deepika Padukone during the filming of Gehraiyaan.
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Intimacy director Aastha Khanna Bhardwaj shares if she changes her approach with established actors
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Aastha recalls working with Deepika Padukone in Gehraiyaan
Gehraiyaan directed by Shakun Batra, starring Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Ananya Panday in the lead roles was released on February 11, 2022 on Amazon Prime Video and the film was a huge success. While the great ensemble of the cast definitely grabbed the eyeballs, the film had also become a popular subject of discussion due to its intimate scenes and the plot, which resulted in a variety of opinions from the audience. Recently, in an exclusive interview with Pinkvilla, Aastha Khanna Bhardwaj, India’s first intimacy coordinator, revealed what goes behind coordinating the intimacy scenes in a film.
Aastha Khanna Bhardwaj shares if her approach changes with established actors
During the exclusive interaction with Pinkvilla, Aastha Khanna Bhardwaj was asked if she changes her process of approaching a certain sequence that involves intimacy while working with an established actor like Deepika Padukone. Opening up about the same, she shared, “Oh yaa! Your approach changes because you are not talking to them as though they don’t have any idea of how to shoot or what camera angles are like, but apart from that it doesn’t change.”
Bhardwaj added, “When you are talking to an actor that is an established actor, they understand what camera angles are, what is being shot, what is the story of, and what the character is. They are also at a stage where they are able to question you why is there a scene of intimacy, is it needed for the story, and so on and so forth.” 
Aastha Khanna Bhardwaj reveals how Deepika Padukone shot intimate scenes in Gehraiyaan
Talking about working with Deepika further, Aastha shared her experience and mentioned Padukone was a dream to work with. She revealed, “Deepika who was a dream to work with, is by far one of the most amazing actors who have I have done intimacy scenes with. While making sure everything is up to protocol, she would be very clear about making sure, like she told me ‘You make sure everyone is out of the room, you make sure it’s a closed set’ She would say those things to me. But, when it came down to actually shooting those scenes, there wasn’t apprehension, she was there.”
Bhardwaj added, “She (Deepika Padukone) was happy to give Shakun all the faith and support that she needed to give as a performer to her director. At that moment be like, ‘I understand that this is your vision and we’re gonna help make it come to life.’ So at that moment, she was not Deepika, she was Alisha. She made it happen and she was like, ‘I understand why Alisha would do this, and so we’ll do it.’ Because she was also so self-assured, and when you’re at that stage, and you’ve chosen to do a film like this, you know know what is coming and it’s not going to hit you out of nowhere. So you’re aware of what you are shooting and what is coming to you and she came with that confidence and she ruled.”
In Shakun Batra’s Gehraiyaan, Deepika portrays Alisha, a young girl from Mumbai. Alisha betrays her boyfriend and gets involved with her cousin's future husband. Additionally, Alisha deals with anxiety problems in the film and has a difficult past relationship.
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