‘Mirzapur: The Movie’ has now released in cinemas after achieving great popularity on OTT. The characters have become cult now and the film has been doing exceptionally well in theatres with the film crossing Rs 50 crore in the span of two days. Rasika Duggal who plays a key character in the film, opened up on the intimate scenes and how having intimacy co-ordinators made her feel safer and more comfortable during emotionally and physically demanding sequences.Rasika compared an intimacy coordinator to the professionals who oversee other specialised sequences on a film set. She said in an interview with ANI, “For intimacy scenes in particular, nowadays we have intimacy coordinators, which is a very important thing, so that nobody is kind of violated in any way and everyone’s concerns are properly taken care of. It’s like you have a choreographer for a dance sequence. If you like, you have a fight master for an action sequence; you know, similarly, you have an intimacy coordinator for an intimacy sequence. So where we’ve sort of workshopped those scenes before to understand what is comfortable or not comfortable for someone, for an actor, for your co-actor, for yourself, we try and understand how we can achieve what the director wants after they’ve sort of discussed it with us.”According to Rasika, the process also gives actors an opportunity to raise concerns before stepping onto the set. She explained that if an actor is uncomfortable with a particular aspect of a scene, the team can work out an alternative approach without compromising the director’s vision.“And if somebody is uncomfortable with something, we try and find another way to sort of have that same effect, but without making anybody feel uncomfortable. So all of that is very beautifully coordinated these days. And I think it’s a very nice thing to have intimacy coordinators. It makes everybody feel very comfortable,” she said.Rasika further highlighted how intimacy coordinators bring a greater degree of clarity and professionalism to the filming process. From establishing exactly what will be filmed to ensuring that only essential crew members are present during sensitive sequences, she said the system eliminates much of the uncertainty actors may otherwise face.“You know exactly what is going to happen on set. You know, you can ask for a closed set. And earlier, before there were intimacy coordinators, it would kind of be somebody’s responsibility to do it, but nobody would know who exactly. But now, because of these coordinators, we know that there’s one person taking care of this. One person is calling for a closed set, which means that they’ve decided who all are required here for a shot and who’s not. And those people, the people who aren’t, are not there. So it’s all very professional and properly coordinated,” Rasika explained.While discussing her experience on Mirzapur, Rasika recalled that intimacy coordinators were not yet a common part of Indian productions when the first season was being filmed. She noted that the practice had already been more established in the West, but the Mirzapur team nonetheless made an effort to ensure that she felt heard and comfortable while filming intimate sequences.“When we were doing Mirzapur season one, we didn’t have intimacy coordinators as a concept at that time. Here, I think in the West, they’ve had it for a while, but it hadn’t come here till then. But we were fortunate to have a unit which was very, very sensitive, with very sensitive directors, who made sure of who took on the role of an intimacy coordinator, you know, at that time. So I knew exactly what shots I was doing, exactly how they would be filmed. The director had discussed it with me in a space earlier where I had a space to sort of say no, if I was not okay with something. So those things were beautifully taken care of, but I cannot emphasise the importance of intimacy coordinators more than I already have. It’s very important,” Rasika emphasised.
