‘It wasn’t easy, not explored in Indian cinema before’

‘Gehraiyaan’ star Deepika Padukone calls her character ‘raw and real’ and accepts that she had to dig deep within herself to play her, even revisiting some not so pleasant moments from her past relationships.

During the trailer launch of the upcoming film ‘Gehraiyaan’, she also addressed the intimate scenes in the film and how director Shakun Batra made actors feel safe and secure to portray such vulnerability on screen, reports Indian Express.

Deepika spoke about shooting intimate scenes for the Shakun Batra directorial, explaining they would have been difficult if it was not for the director making her and the rest of the cast feel safe and secure. Deepika said that doing Gehraiyaan was not easy, because showcasing “intimacy is not easy”!

She said, “I don’t think it would be possible without the comfort that he (Shakun) has given all of us. You feel you are working in an extremely safe and secure environment because intimacy is not easy. It is not something that we have ever experienced or explored in Indian cinema before, in the way we have in this film. So, to go down that route of intimacy, of vulnerability, is only possible when you know that the director is not doing it for the eyeballs, but he is doing it because that’s just where the characters are coming from, through their journey and their experiences.”

Deepika added that she wouldn’t want to call her character in Gehraiyaan “bold” but more “raw and real”. She said, “All I can say is that I have not done something like this before. I have done films and a lot of characters that are love stories or relationships dramas. I think, for me, this character is a lot more raw and a lot more real than some of the other characters that I have played. Emotionally, it is completely stripped and naked in that sense, and completely vulnerable. I think to be able to do that on screen, it has to come from a very deep place. It is not to say that I haven’t experienced that before. But, not to this extent, where I have to really dig deep and go to the places that aren’t really that pleasant, and are not really pleasant experiences from my own life, as well as dealing with mental health issues.”

Deepika plays the role of Alisha in the film that will release on Amazon Prime Video on February 11.