Director's wife objects to nude scene

London’sdesi import Aruna Shields who was last seen cavorting with Vivek Oberoi inPrince has bettered her score in her second Hindi film. In Mr Singh Mrs Mehtashe has bartered the bikini for her birthday suit.
Though thecensorboard has generously passed all the nude scenes and torrid love sequencesbetween Aruna Shields and Prashant Narayanan in Pravesh Bhardawaj’s MrSingh Mrs Mehta with an ‘A’ certificate, the director’s wifeShruti Nagar (who works with Rajshri Productions) has objected to the way thedirector has repeatedly caught the couple in intimate postures all across thefilm.
There are three lengthy love-making scenes in Mr Singh MrsMehta. The wife feels her director-husband has overdone the sex and nudity.Apparently she has made her displeasure amply clear to her husband. SaysPravesh, “There is one particular lovemaking sequence to which my wifeShruti reacted very strongly. Yes, Shruti did object saying, 'Ek aadh scenehota to koi baat nahin par yahan to puri film iske hi ird-gird ghoom rahi hai'.She was very upset about the subject matter itself. There is a sequence in thefilm where Neera (Aruna Shields) undresses in a way that her clothes come offone by one. Shruti, my wife, thought I should tone it down or not make a careerselling nudity.”
Pravesh did reconsider his approach to nudity,kissing and lovemaking. “It did make me rethink but it was a criticalsequence in the film. I think she is upset that her husband made a film wherenudity is central to the story itself. Actually she doesn't approve of thescript, and the reason being nudity.”
The director admits thenudity content is over-the-top. And the censors suggested that the ladies’bare back be blurred. “She is naked but wherever her derriere got exposedwe had to blur it out. A couple of censor members who were divided in theiropinion wanted to go back on their decision and cut it out. But I think theyrealised that the psychological impact was not diluted. We agreed on blurringthe butt. For me nudity is the drama not the visibility of genitals. And thepsychological impact is not diluted. I am happy with theend-result.”
The director hopes that the bare flesh is notmisconstrued to be meant for titillation. “The film has been written forthe average Indian viewer. I know I am taking a risk and I hope they get thepoint, otherwise I fail. But I am confident it getsacross.”
Another sequence where Aruna Shields poses nude forher painter-lover has also been passed uncut. Heaving a sigh of relief, Praveshsays, “Ashwin (Prashant) has seen her naked. So Neera (Aruna) the muse isnaked. And I didn't want the sequence to be like the one in Titanic which wasremoved from the Indian version. The sequence is quite long and Neera is nakedin the entire painting sequence. Certain shots where her back is visible havebeen blurred but nothing had to be deleted from the film. The idea is not toprovoke but to make it acceptable in our minds without making her a slut in thefilm.”
Pravesh feels the censorboard has demonstrated a deepmaturity in passing the film. “We did have more than one revisingcommittee screenings and lots of anxious moments. But if you ask me, I wouldlike to send a bouquet to censor board. No scene has been snipped.”
The actress Aruna Shields (earlier seen with Vivek Oberoi inPrince) agreed to go nude. “Naturally, she’s posing for a nudepainting. I am quite relieved that film was cleared. I was very nervous andafraid as people around me started counting the kisses also. I did not have thebudget to shoot alternate shots so depending on the clearance either I had afilm on hand or none. I have shot the film in a certain manner where cutting outa sequence or faster cutting of certain scenes would have killed my narrativestyle. I want to be with 'world cinema'.
The biggest creative riskthat I have taken is to have just four characters in the film. The film is shotwith a hand-held camera keeping in mind the intimacy of story telling. A lot ofscenes are done in long takes. So if I had to snip a few scenes it would havebeen totally odd. In the final scene the nude scenes must be around 10-oddminutes or more.”
Check out Aruna Shields’s pics
Follow us on Twitter formore stories