Covid-19 impact on showbiz: Could intimacy on-screen be a no-go post lockdown?

With social distancing being the way of life, film industry experts talk about how physically and emotionally intimate scenes in films could be handled whenever shoots resume.

“Do phool takraayenge, aur hum samajh jaayenge.” Actor-filmmaker Satish Kaushik quips as he conjectures how romantic and intimate scenes could rewind to the 70s and 80s in the post Covid-19 era. But on a serious note, considering how new rules of on-screen intimacy -- emotional and physical -- are being outlined across the world in these times of social distancing.”Now safety is more important than passionate scenes... A change is evident,” says Kaushik.

Actors Ayushmann Khurrana and Jitendra Kumar share a kiss in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan

Will they take time to return? Are they manageable with different camera angles? Will actors agree? These are some questions being pondered upon.Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar had raised the question recently on Instagram: “How the cinema world conducts shooting intimate scenarios in films (is) to be seen and planned, after all this is over. Especially, the intimate kissing/hugging scenes. How close or how far....or cheat storytelling in those intimate scenes for sometime.”

And while actor Dia Mirza had a fitting reply, “Guru, the entire process of making a film is intimate!”, screenwriter-director Hitesh Kewalya says in a country like India where we believe in working shoulder-to-shoulder, it’s difficult to maintain social distancing to begin with.”The same is reflected in our films. Things won’t be easy, but we’ve to find a way even while shooting intimate scenes,” says the Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan director, recounting that even when actor Manu Rishi Chadha had developed a skin infection -- which they initially mistook for chicken pox -- while they were shooting the film, they ensured he was quarantined.

Kewalya is currently writing his next directorial, a romantic film. Asked him if he’s tweaking the narrative given the current scenario, he says, “I can’t do that, or else I won’t be able to write. After all it’s a love story!”

Cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee, who is working on Gangubai Kathiawadi, believes “physical and emotional intimate scenes can be managed” by putting the “actors who would be performing these scenes in quarantine and monitor their health before shooting, or with certain camera angles, technology and visual effects”. But the bigger worries, he says, are when work would resume as many people are jobless, and also the huge set which may get ruined in the upcoming monsoon season.

Though intimate scenes often become talking points and generate interest across films, TV and OTT content, trade expert Atul Mohan feels not many “actors would be ready to take the risk” of doing such scenes. “I think we’ll have to avoid shooting such scenes for now. Also, quarantining cast and crew together won’t be easy,” he adds.

Intimacy coordinator Amanda Cutting, who has worked on web series Mastram and also on an unaired prequel pilot for Game of Thrones, points out that protocols have already put in place in Spain, Australia and Italy, and India could take a cue from them. But doing Covid-19 tests of the entire cast and crew, maintaining hygiene and sanitisation, and employing smaller crews, will be vital.

Censor board member and writer Mihir Bhuta says regulations from the World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health, in this regard are awaited.

Practically speaking though, Bhuta, who is avoiding adding group scenes in the projects he’s working on, adds, “These physical or emotionally intimate scenes usually involve two people. That can be done by getting them tested and quarantining them. But that would be difficult for over 25 people on the set. The bigger concern is to get back to work, and we don’t see that happening before July or even September.”