Tillotama Shome and Manav Kaul starrer Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper is currently streaming on Netflix. The series about a principled government servant who suddenly takes to escort services due to cash crunch might have received mixed reviews but has garnered quite a bit of attention for its sensitive treatment of intimacy. In an exclusive conversation with News18 Showsha, Tillotama, who had earlier spoken about struggling with onscreen nudity and sex scenes, dissects filming her intimate scenes with Manav in the show.
According to her, ‘good intentions’ alone on the part of actors and makers while shooting for such scenes isn’t enough. “The directors (Puneet Krishna and Amrit Raj Gupta) met me having storyboarded every scene. It was a long meeting where everything was discussed. To think that just we’ll be able to direct and deliver intimate scenes with great ease just because we’re good people or friends with good intentions isn’t right. I don’t think it’s a natural by-product. It’s something that requires a tremendous amount of planning,” she explains.
Tillotama insists that makers shouldn’t be rushing towards shooting such sequences and give actors some time to develop an equation. “I didn’t know Manav and while he may be a great guy, I wasn’t on set to become friends with him. We had to deliver our job. We developed an equation over time. What if we had shot those scenes in the first few days? It was very important to have directors who can understand that and prepare so that it’s professional,” she says.
The actor, who had blazed the trail through the portrayal of self-pleasure in Lust Stories 2 and frontal nudity in Qissa, also draws attention to the fact on how male actors can also be uncomfortable while shooting for intimate scenes. “Sometimes your male co-star is very comfortable but when you see the scene, it looks very odd because we’re awkward with intimacy. That’s why I prefer to be on the side of caution, be more cautious and realistic,” she says.
The Night Manager actor adds, “It’s important to be able to say a no because you aren’t comfortable. You also feel a tremendous amount of pressure on set when everybody has said yes and you’re the only person to say a no. What then might happen is that you may be unintentionally called difficult or someone who’s not a team player.”
And while Tillotama stresses on the importance of intimacy coordinators, she reveals that there was none on the sets of Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper. “The number of times our directors checked in if we’re comfortable and gave us the right to say no is very progressive and much needed. That’s why I didn’t feel the need for an intimacy coordinator. I felt so safe with them and could communicate directly. In fact, having a mediator would slow things down. I also felt that they including Manav could understand from my face and body language if I’m unconformable,” she remarks.
Sharing her stance on why sex scenes always garner a lot of attention, Tillotama states, “We don’t live in a society where women are looked at with a gaze that’s progressive. So, it’s wild to expect that a woman or a man are going to be comfortable. The awkwardness of intimacy is a very, very private thing in our culture. We, as a society, are very uncomfortable with public demonstrations of affection, desire and love.”
