While discussions about the importance of intimacy coordinators on sets — particularly in movies featuring sex scenes — are growing louder, the many experiences shared by female actors over the years, in which they felt their male counterparts took advantage of them, suggest that having intimacy coordinators is a necessity. Recently, actor Anupria Goenka, who has appeared in films like Padmaavat, Tiger Zinda Hai, War 2, shared that she, too, has faced similar experiences where she felt “violated” by her co-stars while shooting intimate scenes.
“It happened twice. Once, I wouldn’t say that the person was taking advantage of me; rather, an excitement took over. I could see that he’s getting excited, which is not the way it should be. Then you feel a little violated and uncomfortable. These incidents happened during kissing scenes. In another instance, I was wearing clothes that weren’t comfortable. I had expected that he (the co-star), as a man, would know that holding a woman by her waist is easier in such scenes. But he almost put his hands on my butt, which wasn’t required. He could have put his hands on my waist,” she recalled during a chat with Siddharth Kannan on his YouTube channel.
Anupria said that this made her extremely uncomfortable and added, “Later, I moved his hands slightly up (to the waist) and told him to hold there and not below. But at that moment, it felt… I could not ask him why he did that. Because he would have simply said it was a mistake. I couldn’t call him out at that time. But I told him, ‘In the next take, don’t do this, rather do this.’ He then adhered to that.” Pointing out that a person can kiss someone tenderly too while filming kissing scenes, she noted, “But sometimes they just go at you and that’s too much to take.”
Known for her performances in movies such as Bobby Jasoos, Paathasala, Tiger Zinda Hai, Sir, Padmaavat, War, Mere Desh Ki Dharti and Berlin, she also played notable roles in series such as Sacred Games, Abhay, Criminal Justice, Asur: Welcome to Your Dark Side and Sultan of Delhi, among others.
