Shekhar Suman said he shot for the scene in one take.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali asked Shekhar Suman if he was okay with the scene as it was a tightrope.
Shekhar Suman has opened up about performing a racy scene for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s recently released series, Heeramandi. In the scene, Suman, who played the role of a nawab, was sitting in a carriage with Manisha Koirala’s Mallikajaan. However, he was too drunk to notice that he was standing with his back turned to Mallikajaan and rather, was getting fellatio mid-air.
Talking about the scene, Shekhar Suman told Radio City, “So, this scene, where my character is drunk, it was a normal sequence but he felt the subtext of the sequence was different. So, he suggested we do it differently, where I am doing this mid-air… He asked, ‘Are you open for it? If not, that is okay,’ because the scene can turn out really ridiculous, it is a fine line, a tightrope. But I was up for it, and told him main bilkul karuga and we just went into it.”
The actor added, “Even if a scene is written, when he is on set with actors, sometimes he will flip it completely. If you are like, ‘I had thought something else,’ he will tell you, ‘This is my interpretation.’” Shekhar said, “He doesn’t overinform or feed you. He describes to you the mental state and the background and asks you to go ahead and do it. It was done in one take. It was a long scene and we did it the first take itself. Once it was one, he came and said, ‘Magnificent! Pack up!’ After that, people from the unit came to me and said, ‘Sir aapki wajah se humare 6-7 ghante bach gaye, we are getting over early!’”
Shekhar had earlier told Zoom TV as well that he shot the scene in one take. “I said, ‘In this life, nothing is too bizarre, I’ll do it’. And it was done, first take. Now, a drunken scene is difficult to perform, because you are either over or under. You can start hamming majestically. But somehow, I understood the tonality of it, the gravitas of it. The scene also brings out the pathos of this nawab, a rich man who is behaving in such an (undignified way). So, I did it instinctively, and he came running and said, ‘Magnificent’. And it was pack-up after that,” Shekhar said.
Currently streaming on Netflix, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar also stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Shaikh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sharmin Segal Mehta, Farida Jalal, Fardeen Khan and Adhyayan Suman in key roles. It explores the various aspects of a woman’s trials and tribulations.
