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Anjana Sukhani revealed she was blindsided by a kiss scene with Anil Kapoor in Salaam-E-Ishq. She felt pressured as a newcomer and criticised the lack of prior notice.
Anjana Sukhani and Anil Kapoor had appeared in Nikkhil Advani’s film Salaam-E-Ishq.
Anjana Sukhani has revealed an unexpected on-set experience involving a kiss scene with Bollywood icon Anil Kapoor during the filming of Nikkhil Advani’s multi-starrer film Salaam-E-Ishq. The movie had released on January 25, 2007. In a recent interview, Sukhani labelled Advani as ‘mean’ and ‘harsh’ and accused him for not informing her in advance about the scene.
Anjana revealed that she was caught off guard by the sudden demand for the scene involving her to kiss Anil Kapoor. She said that she had no time to mentally prepare. As a newcomer in the industry, she sensed an unspoken assumption that she wouldn’t refuse. Anjana claimed that she felt powerless to object and reluctantly agreed to go ahead with it. She also broke down.
In a conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Anjana Sukhani opened up about the struggles of being a newcomer in the film industry. She shared how beginners are often taken for granted because people assume they won’t fight back. This is when she spoke about being blindsided by a kissing scene that she only learned about moments before stepping onto a nightclub-style set. This left her feeling cornered.
“I was not told about the kiss, right till the end, until we were walking on the set to do the scene, I was not told. This wouldn’t happen with a star kid, right?” Anjana said.
When asked why she did not question the kissing scene’s absence in the script, Anjana answered, “I don’t think I was in a position to. I was nervous, overwhelmed, I didn’t even have anybody around me to even have a chat about it with anyone. I was just told that this is what you have to do.”
Anjana shared that while kissing scenes are sometimes part of the storytelling, it’s only fair to inform the actors beforehand. She explained that having a heads-up allows them to mentally prepare and approach the scene with confidence and comfort. “I understand as an actor, yes, of course, if a script demands, you have to be open about… if a scene is demanding that there will be a kiss, it’s fair enough. I am saying, at least inform. Mentally, I need to be prepared in my head. At the end of the day, this is still some kind of intimacy and I think that was… I think I have carried that for a very long time,” she said, and added, “This is taking for granted that she is new, so she will do anything. She won’t say no.”
Anjana added that she “wanted to cry.” “Even if I knew half an hour, one hour before that ‘this is what we are setting up to do, so just be prepared’. If you don’t know and it comes as a shock to you, then you are like… okay. ‘I don’t know how to handle this. I don’t have any friend on set,” she said and candidly pointed out the double standards in the industry, claiming that such treatment would never be meted out to a star kid.
Anjana revealed that she never confronted Nikkhil Advani about the incident, admitting she still carries some “bitterness” over it. When asked what might have happened if she had refused, she said that there was a real possibility she could have been removed from the film.
“What if I was asked to leave the film? I am just assuming. What if he would have told me, this scene is important and if you don’t do it then leave. Then what do I do?”
“I am just saying that don’t presume already that I would be okay with it, and even if I will be okay with it, give me time to process it and that was not given and I feel that’s unfair because they wouldn’t do that with a star kid. You could get away with me because I have no backing,” Anjana concluded.
