It must be awkward enough filming sex scenes in films.
Having to act sexy with a crew of 50 standing around as a greasy boom operator stares holes through the back of your head must be awkward enough, and that’s when people are pretending to have sex.
How much worse then must it be when the actual being done is done for real, and then to top it all off?
The director is your boyfriend.
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This is exactly the situation one actor found themselves in while filming a banned erotic thriller added to Netflix just this week.
The film, called Gandu, is an Indian film in which the erotic nature, and genuine unsimulated sexual acts, led to it being banned in several countries.
India is included in that list, where it was banned for seven years before being released on the internet.
Gandu, which translates to a*****le, focuses on a young rapper, who steals from his mother’s lover in order to buy drugs and try make it as a musician.
The young rapper, named Gandu, is played by Anubrata Basu.
In the movie he has sex with a character played by Rituparna Sen, in which they had actual unsimulated sex.
Within this, she performs oral sex on Basu, whose erect penis is shown.
Sen, who plays multiple characters in the film, was actually dating the director at the time the scene was filmed.
When asked about this, she told Open magazine: “I didn't have any problems at all. I have been a professional actress for 10 years now. It doesn't bother me if the camera is off or on.
“They were physical workshops that helped us shed our inhibitions and become real. If someone were to touch my boobs, it's natural that I'd be aroused.
“But it is the aftermath that is important. How do you feel after such a shoot? I wasn't shattered or anything after I shot Gandu.
“I was shooting lovemaking scenes with my co-actor that were being shot by my boyfriend. Now, how weird is that?"
The director, Qaushiq Mukherjee, told the Indian Telegraph of filming the scene: “For Gandu, I just told my actors Anubrata and Rii that Gandu has to get superf****d in one scene. They did the rest.”
Despite the controversies, which included some audience members reportedly walking out, Gandu has received predominantly positive reviews.
It wasn't screened in its native India for two years after its release, and then was only released online unofficially five years after that.
With a score of 68 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, Variety called it: “A high-energy example of a rarefied genre.”
Gandu is available to watch on Netflix now.
Topics: Netflix, TV and Film, Film
Michael Slavin