Vishal Bhardwaj’s world of cinema is like a galaxy far away. It’s not for everyone; its uniqueness stands out in the current landscape, just as it did when the ace filmmaker broke away from his typically dark, gritty and Shakespearean style of cinema and dived into a more playful mood with his segment in the recently released Lust Stories 3.
What made his story in the celebrated Netflix franchise special this time was that it was led by real-life power couple Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth. The excitement automatically doubled as fans were curious to see their on-screen chemistry once again, this time as a married couple off screen bringing their magic to a story of lust, a little smattering of love, and a generous shift towards the ‘female gaze’ at the centre of a role-reversal play.
Trust Vishal Bhardwaj to always infuse literature into his tales of love and longing, and this time, lust. His Lust Stories 3 segment is the story of Saira (Aditi Rao Hydari), a conservative Urdu literature college teacher who is utterly suffocated in her conventional marriage. Set against the backdrop of 1987 Hyderabad, Saira is not only the anonymous author of a wildly popular erotica bestseller, but her own desires slowly creep back into her marriage, eventually helping her reconnect with her husband.
In an exclusive conversation with NDTV, Vishal Bhardwaj opens up about what it was like working with Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth, who already share a level of comfort as a couple. Most importantly, he shares his views on one of the most debated topics, especially in a genre like this: the presence of intimacy coordinators on set.
Speaking about the power couple, Vishal Bhardwaj says, “It actually helped. But more than that, you know, they both were so professional. I didn’t feel like, you know, that they are married. The way they were behaving on set, they were sitting separately. She was in her zone. He was in his zone. They were very professional about their conduct, which was so heartwarming and so lovely.”
Interestingly, Aditi Rao Hydari was always set to be cast, but Siddharth became a part of the director’s Lust Stories 3 segment later, almost as if it were written in the stars.
“I wrote this script and we approached Aditi and she was shooting for something. So then she said that she won’t be able to, she won’t be free to shoot. But then we got delayed. So Siddharth was never there in the picture. In fact, he was in America. He was shooting for some show in America. So we didn’t write with them as a couple in mind. So Siddharth came later. When I got to know Siddharth is back, I sent him the script, that, you know, can you read this and does this excite you? We can do it together. And he very gracefully accepted.”
Was Vishal Bhardwaj In Support Of Intimacy Coordinators On Set?
Vishal Bhardwaj opens up about how he was initially apprehensive about having intimacy coordinators on set. He was of the opinion that they might encroach upon his creativity, but the result pleasantly surprised him.
The director recalls how professional the intimacy coordinators were on set. It was also one of the many reasons why the atmosphere made him forget that Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth were a married couple off camera.
Vishal Bhardwaj shares, “I had not worked with them. So there was an apprehension in my head that they would be encroaching on my creativity. But I was totally 100, 200% wrong. They were so good, because they are trained for that, they make the atmosphere so conducive, so professional, that if they have to show a position of lovemaking, they’re just two girls, they would lie on the bed and demonstrate it. At first, you feel amused, and then you forget because they are doing it so professionally.”
He continues, “It’s so easy for them to communicate. When they go to a male, I mean, they are very professional about it. So, I mean, it changed my perception completely, forever. I am never going to work without an intimacy coordinator if intimate scenes are involved because they are so good. And they actually made me feel comfortable. Otherwise, I used to be very conscious.”
One of the most talked-about scenes in the story was the dreamt-up seduction sequence. Siddharth had even mentioned how the scene came to him in a dream, which he pitched to Bhardwaj and then spontaneously shot with Aditi Rao Hydari.
Trust Vishal Bhardwaj to blend romance and poetry seamlessly, making the entire execution look like a painting on screen. And so it was, as audiences enjoyed a very different style of storytelling from the director, away from his usual dark noir templates and into a more light-footed psychological and romantic space.
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