Lights, Camera, Drama!

SEVEN: Fire Up

Akshara

"Hi Akshara, I'm Vaibhavi. Please take a seat" the intimacy coordinator says as I enter the cabin.

"Hey" I reply confidently and take my seat.

As an actor, I've shot intimate scenes before and so I know the protocol. Vaibhavi will discuss what level of intimacy is expected from me in the film, I will tell her what I'm not comfortable with so we can work that out and then she'll confirm my limit zones.

It's very practical you see, even if it doesn't look that way when you watch a scene.

An intimate scene is so thoroughly choreographed that an actor need not worry about their physical limits, they just have to focus on their emotions.

"You know the process Akshara but as the intimacy coordinator, let me just reaffirm.

The film will have a few kissing scenes as you know. There would be other intimate scenes too, as you must have read in the script.

Is there any physical limit apart from the ones mentioned in the contract?"

As the contract mentions everything that I am uncomfortable with, I say no to her question.

"Any other limitations that we must keep in mind?"

"I just want to be able to take a timeout if at all I'm ever uncomfortable during an ongoing scene"

She nods "Absolutely"

"I think that's it then" she speaks up again "Now that I've spoken to Abhimanyu and you, I think we can proceed with today's workshop. I'll meet you in the hall in 10 minutes"

I pick up my bag and proceed towards the hall where Abhimanyu is already waiting for me.

"All good?" he asks with a gentle smile and I nod.

I take a chair and think about how quickly everything's moving. We got our schedule for the coming three weeks yesterday. Costumes, choreography and everything else is lined up in the coming days.

And then we get a week off, before we fly to New York to shoot for our first schedule.

After this workshop today, I'm also supposed to meet Veer because he'll be leaving for South Africa tomorrow for shooting.

"Alright, sweethearts. Let's begin" Vaibhavi enters the hall and breaks my chain of thoughts.

I get up immediately and stand alongside Abhimanyu.

"The basics first. Akshara, your character is freakishly extroverted. You should get super comfortable holding Abhimanyu's hand, tapping his shoulder, punching him jokingly and things like that.

Abhimanyu, you need to act hesitant at least for the initial scenes because you're physically and emotionally distant.

Then, during the London layover, there's a kissing scene, the buildup for which would begin from the plane journey itself.

Abhimanyu, you need to portray your attraction timidly. The sexual tension needs to be really high at this point."

Abhimanyu and I nod and start practising the basic scenes where I'm supposed to be holding his hand or tapping his shoulder casually. It's a really simple thing, to be honest, he's been intimate on screen with more actresses than I can count and even though my expertise in that area is comparatively lower, I had shot such scenes with Veer and I didn't feel awkward for the most parts of it. In short, Abhimanyu and I face no difficulty in this part. Hushhh.

"Well done guys. Now, whenever there's an intimate scene and I want the intensity to be higher, I'll use the codeword "Fire up". When I say that, you should know that you need to add more sparks. Simple?"