Mirzapur The Movie: Mohit Malik, Rasika Dugal on working with intimacy coordinator

Intimate scenes in films and shows have increasingly become less about what happens in front of the camera and more about what happens before it. As conversations around consent, boundaries and safer working environments on sets have grown, intimacy coordinators have become an important part of productions involving sexual or intimate content. Their job is to choreograph such scenes, establish boundaries between actors and ensure that everyone involved is comfortable with what is being filmed. For Mirzapur: The Movie, actors Mohit Malik and Rasika Dugal worked with intimacy coordinator Ankita Poddar while shooting an intimate scene.Mohit, who shot an intimate scene for the first time for Mirzapur: The Movie, experienced that process first-hand. Speaking exclusively to India Today Digital, the actor opened up about how intimacy coordinator Ankita Poddar helped him and his co-star Rasika Dugal navigate the scene, from discussing where they were comfortable being touched to seeking permission during the shoot. He also spoke about the very different question that is often directed at married women doing intimate scenes: what does your spouse think?For Mohit, the answer was simple. “Before the married man is an actor,” he said, explaining that he discussed the scenes with his wife, Aditi Malik, and made sure she was comfortable with them. “I told her and explained everything to her, that these are the scenes. And also when we saw the film, when we came back, I asked her again, ‘Are you okay with it?’ She told me, ‘You're an actor. It has to be a part of the character's journey. It was important. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been there’,” he said.He recalled being very nervous before the shoot as it was his first time, and credited Rasika with making him comfortable. Mohit said the coordinator also took care of the scene so that they could focus on their work. Rasika, who was also part of the conversation, chipped in, “We could really focus on the acting side of things because we didn't have to worry about what he's okay with, what I'm okay with, what the director wants. Everything was so well taken care of.” For Mohit, the process was not simply about making actors comfortable on the day of the shoot. It was also about establishing boundaries before the cameras rolled. The actors openly discussed what they were and weren't comfortable with, and consent became part of the process rather than an afterthought. “I have worked with an intimacy coordinator for the first time. It's so nice to ask the other person, as a co-actor, what you're comfortable with, where you can touch and where you can't touch. And we did that exercise. Both of us, ‘I'm not comfortable with this.’ She's not comfortable with this and that. And to take her permission, ‘Can I do this?’ And to have somebody directing that,” Mohit explained.Rasika added, “Then it automatically becomes work also. It's not left to any interpersonal relationship. It was a properly skilled workshop where she had done this exercise, and she did that with us. It's not like you're on set and you're doing it.”Mohit was particularly emphatic about why intimacy coordinators need to become a standard part of productions involving intimate scenes. He concluded with a message to filmmakers: don't leave actors to figure it out themselves.- Ends