EXCLUSIVE: Four More Shots Please Actor Ankur Rathee Says He Laughs At The Absurdity Of How Intimate Scenes Are Shot
Ankur Opens Up on Shooting Intimate Scenes
Updated : May 05, 2020 05:41 PM IST
Ankur Rathee has become quite a familiar face in the OTT space. He has been part of umpteen web series be it Four More Shots Please, Made In Heaven, The Tashkent Files, Mission Over Mars, so on and so forth. Currently, he is also shooting for the ongoing Bejoy Nambiar film Taish, an under-production film which we had exclusively reported about earlier.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to state that web shows have always used ‘intimacy’ as one of the main ingredients to sell the content. The actor has done a lot of intimate scenes in these web shows.
This Princeton graduate is still trying to find his ground in Bollywood and his effort is surely seen. But one can’t really simply abrogate the experience one gains while one is actually doing the job. Shooting intimate scenes at times becomes tremendously uncomfortable which is why many actors and actresses choose not to because they don’t really want to be considered borderline crass - but not all content is crass. Period. Having said that, it also has got to do a lot with the psychology and the mentality of who is watching the content and what does he or she want to watch.
Rathee got candid about his experience while shooting intimate scenes. "The most awkward part of shooting an intimate scene, ironically, is when you’re in between takes, waiting for the camera department to make adjustments. I personally like to laugh at the absurdity of it all," quipped he.
He went on to elaborate on the shooting styles of such scenes stating that there is a very specific way in which the final take is okayed on camera. “These s of scenes look titillating on camera, but shooting them is far from it. Intimacy on camera is choreographed. Like a dance sequence almost. So, the act of engaging in intimacy, which is primal and spontaneous, needs to be tamed and curated for film, but still, look sensuous and unpredictable.”
Rathee takes shooting such sequences with a pinch of salt. He further revealed that in reality, he is just doing what he gets paid for. “My job is to depict real-life people, doing real-life things, which includes being intimate. My job is to make you believe you’ve witnessed a very intimate moment when the reality, as you can see, is quite the opposite.” He contends.
While filming requires a lot more than just the actors in front of the camera. The light has to be perfect, the expressions have to be to the T, the continuity has to be maintained in between shots, the mood of the actors have to be wielded, the sound should be impeccable, the edit has to be on point so on and so forth, therefore, what the audiences see is far from what the reality is.
“Fortunately, actors aren’t alone and there are hundreds of people working towards the success of your scenes. We figure it out, as a team. With experience, actors become good at tuning everything out and being present. You learn to find the motivation behind the choreography, within your character,” asserted Rathee.
Forget about any such sequence that requires the actors to get snuggled up to each other, it could just be a normal scene but if any incompatibility persists, it starts to show at times, on camera and that surely is not desirable. Therefore, it is always good to talk, to break the ice and get comfortable with each other and show some maturity is what Rathee thinks, “You get better at banishing embarrassment and fears of how you look or sound. You learn to be free when you are most susceptible to judgment. I’ve learned that with any scene involving such level of vulnerability (that extends far beyond intimate scenes) building trust and open communication is key."
"I’ve been lucky to have some very mature leading ladies in this department, including Kirti [Kulhari]. 4 More Shots Please, fortunately, was a very professional set, but no matter how you slice it, having fake intimate is funny business." He concluded.