Kareena Kapoor opens up to Gillian Anderson on avoiding sex scenes in films

Kareena Kapoor Khan discusses her career choices, avoiding intimate scenes, and the importance of portraying intimacy in cinema.

Kareena Kapoor Khan has consciously stayed away from intimate scenes throughout her 25-year career, and she recently opened up about her reasons in an interview with Gillian Anderson for The Dirty Magazine. The actor explained that she has never felt comfortable performing such scenes and does not believe they are necessary for storytelling.

“I personally feel that it’s not important to take a story forward,” Kareena said when asked why she has avoided sex scenes. “It’s not something that I believe is required. I know I will not be comfortable doing that. I have never done it.”

She also spoke about the way intimacy is portrayed in cinema, emphasising the need to treat it as a human experience rather than something titillating. According to her, Indian society is still not open enough to fully normalise discussions around sex and female desire in the way Western films do.

Despite her preference to avoid explicit scenes, Kareena has taken on bold roles in the past. She portrayed a sex worker in Chameli (2003), a performance she considers a turning point in her career. Reflecting on the role, she said, “It helped me tap into my own confidence, my sensuality at that young age. I realized I didn’t have to conform to traditional notions of beauty and femininity.”

Known for films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Jab We Met, Udta Punjab, and Singham Again, Kareena most played a cop in Hansal Mehta’s The Buckingham Murders