Mumbai, Sep 16 (PTI) With “Lust Stories 3”, director Shakun Batra says he wanted to focus on the power dynamics between couples, while filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane leaned into the awkwardness and comedic aspect of sex in his segment.
The third instalment of Netflix’s popular anthology franchise, the movie features four short films from Motwane, Batra, Kiran Rao, and Vishal Bhardwaj to explore stories of love, lust, relationships and repressed desires through a contemporary lens.
Batra, whose last film “Gehraiyaan” had an intimacy coordinator for some of the sequences in the movie, said he loves stories about messed up people.
“I like complicated situations and people, I think it’s the easiest place to find drama, it’s the easiest place to build something. I also enjoy psychological battlefield more than external plots.
“So, in this film, sex is like a battlefield, they are playing for power. So, for me, I always enjoyed that. I was like, ‘If you use that as currency for one upmanship, it’ll be fun,” the “Kapoor & Sons” director told PTI in an interview.
Batra’s segment features Ali Fazal and Radhika Madan while Motwane’s part includes Vijay Varma, Konkona Sensharma, Radhika Apte and Abhishek Banerjee.
Motwane said it was helpful to have a theme and then build a story around it.
“Avi Sampath, who’s my writer, wrote the idea and sent it and because it was funny in the beginning itself, I was like, ‘let’s lean into this a little bit more’. The concept of a sex comedy is not a new thing, we’ve been making them for years, like you’ve had the ‘Carry On’ series then “There’s Something about Mary”…
“I do think sex and comedy go together quite well. Sex in itself is awkward, can be awkward, and it’s right for humour. In this case, we’re making it with, two older women who are generally not seen as objects of desire, and the fact that it’s middle-class women who want to end up swapping is right for comedy,” the “Black Warrant” director said.
Motwane said the bigger challenge was to ensure that women’s desires and intentions were portrayed accurately and for this he sought the help of his actresses.
“My mindfulness was coming from the point that I cannot get their intentions, or desires wrong. I would lean into Radhika and Koko (Sharma), saying, ‘You guys tell me what is right, what is wrong’. My only worry was just getting it right in terms of desire,” the director said.
For the actors, performing intimacy for screen came with its set of challenges.
Apte, who has collaborated with Motwane on “Sacred Games” and “Ghoul”, said she had just given birth to her daughter and was not in the headspace to do any movie when the offer for the third part came. She said yes because Motwane was at the helm.
“I was postpartum, I had just given birth. I would actually have never opted to work but because he (Motwane) called, I was there. I don’t even remember what we shot. There was no sleep, I was breastfeeding, she was so small, and I was lost completely.
“With the intimacy workshop, I was like, ‘I don’t want anybody near me’. It was just Vikram, and then we (Apte and Abhishek Banerjee) didn’t know each other, and then actually, I was like, these are very safe people, that was fine,” Apte, who was also in the first part of “Lust Stories” in 2018, said.
Varma is also returning to the franchise after “Lust Stories 2” in 2023. The actor said it is important to have strong guardrails and boundaries while shooting intimate scenes.
“Emotional scenes require you to actually be there, feel everything, and be authentic and to be perceptive. But in intimate scenes, you have to stick to a certain choreography that has been given to you, it doesn’t matter how you feel. It’s to have a structure and work around it,” the actor said.
According to Banerjee, performing intimate scenes is like action or dance, something that he learned on the set of the movie.
For Madan, intimacy workshops before they shot the movie were quite helpful to establish physical comfort. She said she blindly trusted Batra and co-star Ali Fazal, who plays her husband in the movie.
“I was a bit open; Ali was a bit closed. The intimacy workshop really helped him.” Both Motwane and Batra believe that treatment of intimacy in Hindi cinema has evolved for the better in the last few years.
Batra, however, said cinema has done a “disservice” to audiences by sanitising relationships and love.
“We’ve to show intimacy outside of sex. In our movies, even parents don’t hold, kiss each other because we’ve not grown up seeing our parents being intimate with each other. Hence we don’t see it in movies. So, we all have to start showing a little more of what a true relationship is in real life,” director said.
Motwane recalled how a scene between Vinod Khanna and Madhuri Dixit Nene in 1988 film, “Dayavan” was once considered sensational.
“Growing up, intimacy on screen was always suggested. The first few times is always a sensation, then it gets normalised. Seeing intimacy on screen is not sensational anymore.” Actors Aditi Rao Hydari, Siddharth, Gajraj Rao, Sana Thampi and Gurfateh Pirzada round out the cast of “Lust Stories 3”, featuring segments directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and Kiran Rao. It will debut on Netflix from September 18. PTI KKP BK BK
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