Before shooting intimate scenes, Ajay Bahl instructed the lead actors of his next to refrain from speaking to each other. Usually before filming a lovemaking scene, the director in command hopes that his actors know each other enough to be comfortable once the cameras start rolling. But the director of the upcoming BA Pass had a slightly different plan leading to some awkward moments on the sets.
Ajay Bahl didn’t want Shilpa Shukla and Shadab Kamal to talk to each other. So much so that he once even reprimanded them for hanging out on the sets together. ‘Not only Shilpa, I even instructed the ADs (assistant directors) to stay away from Shadab.
I wanted him to feel like an outsider in the room. I have to admit that I was bit of a tyrant. No wonder I often cracked the Chak De! India dialogue: Agar iss team mei koi gunda hai toh mai hoon,’ quips the debutant filmmaker.
So what exactly was the idea behind maintaining off-screen distance between the protagonists? ‘It was for a reason. There’s no closeness as such between them in the film.
Even the physical intimacy they have is more perfunctory than anything. The attraction is basically from the guy’s end whereas Shilpa’s character Sarika is way too cold. So my plan was to make sure familiarity doesn’t seep into the frame and ruin this factor,’ sums up Ajay.
