Dar Gai, what does your name mean? It’s quite unique, I must say.
Well Dar in different languages means ‘the gift’ and in Ukrainian, Gai means ‘the garden’. So we can have different combinations of these two words.
You’ve worked in Hindi films before and even though you’ve done many projects in the past, this is the first time that there are conversations around an intimacy director’s work. Tell us about your experience of working in ‘Gehraiyaan’.
The experience was extremely collaborative and very inspiring because everyone I’ve worked with, starting from actors to the crew and Shakun (Batra), they understood the role of an intimacy director and why Shakun wanted to have an intimacy director on the set and how it can make everyone’s life more easy in a way, and that understanding brought me to the part of the project where I was conducting different workshops, where I was directing and choreographing certain scenes. I think our main task for Shakun was to create a space where actors feel safe, inspired and excited to experiment and to try something new and at the same time, their boundaries are not being crossed.
What were the challenges considering the audience here is quite different? There’s a section of audience in India that doesn’t like intimate scenes, and actors and actresses get trolled. How difficult was it knowing the cultural background here?
I don’t think there’s any difference between certain types of audiences because at the end of the day, it’s our own personal experiences, whether we want it or not, whether we belong from conservative families or not, what we are going through as teenagers, what we go through when we start dating or getting married, these factors matter. Our look at it, sometimes isn’t about the geographical or cultural boundaries, but what we subconsciously find aesthetical or not aesthetical. When we watch some item numbers, they can be as disturbing as any other intimacy scenes in a way. I think my task was to create scenes which don’t feel disturbing, which don’t feel odd, which feels natural and speaks to you on the level of whether you can relate to it or not . The idea was just to recreate butterflies which we feel while going through different types of relationships.
The scenes look so real, as if the actors are actually in a relationship. How did you manage to bring that chemistry between them?
The most beautiful thing about it is that it’s so reel, because it’s not real at all. Because of the techniques that we have found, because of the tools that we have used during our workshops and then pre-shooting the scenes allowed us to be able to recreate it again and again. We were not looking at our bodies… when we were not looking at our hands or at our lips or ourselves as actually my body, like Dara’s body, but it was just a body. It was just the way how we hold the bottle, the way we hold someone’s hand. I don’t need to feel attracted towards my partner, to my actual co-actor, to be able to recreate certain emotions that we see on the scenes. But we need to understand, which combination of the shots, which combination of the angles can recreate the idea of it as if it’s real. There’s a lot of tricks used where you as an audience feel in a certain way, you are able to believe in it, where actually its just the right angles, the right camera movements, the right lighting that allows us to create that. To understand what we need to create, that’s the most important thing. We understand the outcome, outcome is that we want people to feel that it’s real, but the idea is how to achieve it. So this is where our workshops come into place where we are breaking down with our actors what they want, what they don’t want, what’s their experiences, how can we bring those experiences on the screen. It’s just like putting together a puzzle, it’s like a dance choreography. Do we believe in it while we are dancing? No, We are just dancing, but to be able to dance we should have enough stretching power, enough understanding of how your body movements work and enough practice and that’s what an intimacy director does.
While many appreciated the scenes, there was a section of audience that trolled Deepika because she is married and did such intimate scenes with Siddhant. What do you have to say about that?
I’m not sure exactly what things we’re talking about because usually I don’t follow much of the responses. I’m making sure that my actors are safe, my actors are open to do what they’re doing and I can take care of their physical as well as psychological safety and make sure that they are fine and then everything is left to the audience and I think if audience feels so much, it means the the techniques that we used, worked, because they believe in the lies in a way, because everything you see on the screen is a lie. But the fact that people take it seriously, I guess it means that it works.
Talking about your experience of working with Deepika Padukone, Ananya Panday and Siddhant Chaturvedi, what would you like to say about them as actors and as human beings?
They’re extremely collaborative, extremely polite and very professional. When I was conducting the workshops, I didn’t know how they would react to me, I didn’t know whether they will accept all the terms of the new world that we’ll be creating together. But they were so curious and so eager to try something new that it was extremely inspiring for me. It just proved to me that all actors involved in it were extremely professional and at the same time they had this childish naivety that always helps us and pushes us to be better than nobody yesterday.
Also, the film talks about infidelity. So how was it dealing with such a delicate topic for you?
I think this is a great question to ask to Shakun, I would love to see him replying that. See as a filmmaker you’re telling the story, this is a story which shows a very complicated and unique relationship, explores everything in a grey zone and I think exploration of the grey zone is very new for us and its very unusual. I’m really looking forward to what the audience’s response to that would be.
Talking about your own journey, you started your career at the age of 10 and you have done plays and you have made your mark over there. What made you come to India? What excited you to be a part of the Indian film industry?
Oh, I think it was just a coincidence. I was doing my Master of Philosophy and I still remember that one weird incident that happened, I was preparing for my final Masters exam and I was reading philosophy, I was reading Emmanuel Khan when a weird old man came to me and he looked at me and said, ‘What are you reading?’ to which I replied that I was reading philosophy. He said, ‘You should read Indian philosophy.’ I was like, ‘What!’ I looked at him and he just left. Then I was doing my PhD but I got an invitation from Scindia School to come and visit India. So this is I guess how everything started. I have another weird coincidence that pushed a lot of journey that happened later on when I was in India and met Anand Mahindra who saw my play, and he really liked it and said, ‘You definitely should come to Bombay and you should explore the industry.’ But I was not sure about it. He said ,’ You have that energy but I think if you want to start something new, you should know the roots of it.’ So Georgia agreed with him and I had to spend three months travelling on the train all over India exploring the country and Anand was right. So this is how the story started and I guess everything started from that train.
How did you land up in Shakun Batra’s film?
We’re friends from a long time and we wanted to collaborate in something or the other. And when we were discussing a couple of musical videos of mine, we wanted to see if we can also fit the certain chemistry that we were able to explore there, if we can also bring it on this film and then Shakun thought about intimacy direction. He explained what he wanted to have in the film, he explained what he wanted from me and I had to figure out how it all will work and I was excited because I knew from so many people that he’s extremely collaborative as a director and it’s something that I always was looking forward to, to have this kind of connection with someone and being on the sets with him was like a dream. It’s a dream for any actress because he’s a director who gives you hope, who gives you inspiration, who gives you so much confidence in yourself and at the same time he also wants to know your opinion about things. He wants to know if you have to say anything about the scene and it’s incredible. I think it’s the best kind of relationship to have between an actor and a director and he has that, which is extremely unique.
Apart from this, you have worked in a song called Liggy and that became quite popular. Even Salman Khan promoted it on his social media and I saw the shots of it, how you’re actually making that girl prep for her role. So tell us something about that as well.
Yeah, I would say that I directed the music video and the idea was exactly the same again to make the actress feel comfortable, make the person understand what exactly we’re going for, what’s the narrative we’re trying to build. So yeah, I would say that sometimes intimacy direction and direction itself can just be interlinked and depending whom you’re working with and how you define the rules, it can be extremely helpful. So yeah, it was great.
You were in TEDx as well and you have given a good speech over there. Apart from that, you said that people get confused quite often while expressing themselves and they feel like killing someone fifty times in different ways. The way you elaborated a lot of things about how people in India think, can you shed some light on that?
Yeah, I guess everyone’s going through different experiences, whether you’re a director or an actor or whatever you’re creating. All of us, we’re creators, whether you’re a journalist or a tech startup owner, we are always creating. While we are creating, it demands certain sacrifice from our side in terms of our time, our emotions and that’s why all of us are vulnerable, all of us are going through different emotional rollercoasters. I think we as filmmakers need to keep in mind the vulnerability of another person. When actors come on the set, they trust their vulnerability to you, they give vulnerability to you, they allow you to enter their world that always needs to be treated in a way, with love and care. All of us are fragile creatures who need love and care whether we’re actors or we own any other profession. So I think we should treat each other with slightly more care and love.
You also convinced your producer once to have his driver Namdev in a movie. Tell us about that incident.
I just feel the way how I force Namdev to be lead actor in my film, was just how Shakun force me to be a part of his film. I was like, ‘I’m not sure if I should do it.’ He was like, ‘No, you have to do it no matter what’. So I think he was quite convinced about that somehow. When I saw Namdev, I realised that only the truth that he can bring on screen, I wouldn’t be able to bring that through any other actor and the experience of working with known actors in a fiction feature film was extremely inspiring for me.
Talking about ‘Gehraiyaan’, this was the first time we had an intimacy director. Apart from that, this is the first time that an intimacy director has also got credits, following which a lot of people on social media were feeling quite good about it. What do you have to say about that?
Yeah, I think it’s great. I think Shakun understands the importance of intimacy directors, intimacy coaches, intimacy coordinators for the industry and it was absolutely his call. We never discussed that, we never discussed the credits. I think subconsciously he knew that this is something that can maybe push the industry to have a bit more of that or change the industry. So the whole credit just goes to him. I feel that even I didn’t know the importance before we had a long discussion with Shakun and this is extremely beautiful that he’s able to create a vision for something that can impact so many different people.
What are the upcoming projects you’re working on?
I would say we’re working on a lot of exciting projects that I really hope you would watch and you would relate and you will feel butterflies and all kind of regular record stroke of emotions that I’m planning to take you on, I hope so. We’ll test it, we’ll test the rollercoaster.
What expectations should I and the audience have from ‘Gehraiyaan’?
You know that moment when you’re climbing the mountains and you know that no matter what you’ll actually climb the mountain on the time and then there are just three steps left and if you climb those three steps you’ll see the sunset at the right time, and when you’re about to take those three steps, you feel anticipation and those incredible emotions and butterflies. This is that, this is those three steps before you see the sunset.
