We were giggling like teenagers during Gehraiyaan intimacy workshop, says Ananya Panday

An intimacy coach is a new concept in Bollywood. Intimacy workshops, newer still. Gehraiyaan star Ananya Panday talks about what it was like during these workshops.

Gehraiyaan is inching closer towards its release and the star cast of the film is spilling the beans and how! For the film, the makers hired an intimacy director, Dar Gai, and an intimacy coordinator, Neha Vyas, who conducted intimacy workshops for the actors. In an exclusive interview with IndiaToday.in, Ananya Panday shared her experience of doing intimacy workshops with Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Dhairya Karwa. The actress mentioned that they were all 'giggling like teenagers' while attending the workshops.

Ananya says, "I feel like Shakun [Batra, director of Gehraiyaan] really planned it out well because we had a lot of workshops together, which was very helpful. We were almost like children in school because we had a proper schedule. We had classes for two hours and we had intimacy workshops together and then we had an acting workshop for five days. We were full-on in these workshops and it helped us break the ice with each other. When we started the intimacy workshops, we were giggling teenagers, we were feeling a little funny and awkward and we would look at each other and smile. It was something new. I don’t think anyone in our [Hindi film] industry has had an intimacy director yet, specifically on a film. It was new for us. Navigating that, we learnt a lot about each other. But I think, individually, I learned a lot about myself also. It helped me let go a little bit because when you have to show that vulnerable side of yourself to the camera, when you have to let out the ugly side of you to play a scene, it can be scary. Those things helped me break down the fear of letting go, helped me submit and go with the flow and let whatever is inside me come out."

Earlier, in an exclusive interview with IndiaToday.in, Dar Gai had opened up about directing Deepika and Siddhant's bold scenes and how Deepika completely trusted her from the word go. "I don't want to sound cheesy, but it was one of my favourite experiences ever because when you have the right people on board and professionals who believe in what they are doing and why they are doing it, it is then that the magic starts. With Siddhant and Deepika, I could play around with a lot of interesting techniques. When you work on a new project, you always question whether the actress will trust you. Not even once did Deepika ask 'Why should I do it?' or tell me 'I know how to do it'."

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