5 times Bollywood actresses had to perform traumatic sexual scenes

Mumbai: Though 'The Last Tango From Paris' had opened to unanimous acclaim, a video that resurfaced, where director Bernardo Bertolucci admits to have shot the particularly infamous rape scene involving protagonist Marlon Brando without the consent of co-actress Maria Schneider, had recently led to major outrage across the globe.

A still from 'Last Tango In Paris'

The director had self-confessedly conspired with the veteran actor to shoot the scene, in which Brando’s character uses a stick of butter to simulate rape on Schneider. The then 19-year old actress had, on many occasions, claimed to have not been in the loop regarding the scene.

The uproar has made us revisit five instances when Indian film actresses had to enact traumatising sexual scenes, consensually or otherwise.

Rekha in Anjana Safar:

One too many feathers had been ruffled when 'Rekha: The Untold Story,' the actresses's unofficial biography by Yasser Usman had been released. Thee xplosive book had many a snippet from her sensational career, in it, but the most startling one was a particularly unsettling incident from the filming of her Raja Nawathe helmed film, 'Anjana Safar,' co-starring Biswajeet. The actress, then 15, had allegedly been kissed, forcefully, while filming a romantic scene. Though traumatised, she was too benumbed to react.

An excerpt from the biography

Bawandar:

The film, a 2000 biopic, based on the life of Dalit gang-rape survivor Bhanwari Devi, starred Nandita Das.

The scene, integral to the plot, was consensually filmed, but proved to be particularly taxing on the actress, who's said to have been left broken for a good few hours post filming.

A still from Bawander

The actress has since vociferously spoken against prevailing rape penalties in the country, rating a death sentance as inadequate to act as a sexual offence deterrent.

Zakhmi Aurat:

The Dimple Kapadia starrer was the quintessential Bollywood potboiler, in every essence, but it tackled a subject was hitherto untouched, back then. The 1988 film, about a group of vigilante rape surviving victims taking law in their own hands had released to expected criticism, having come out at a time when a majority of the country's feminine populace was being fed Doordarshan's 'appropriately' filtered 'family' content.

Dimple Kapadia in a scene from the film

The idea of women vengefully retaliating by castrating their rapists was too gory and ahead of the time it'd come out in. Dimple had to film a very taxing gang-rape scene for the film, albeit not too graphically disturbing.

Bandit Queen:

Shekhar Kapoor's iconic biopic on Phoolan Devi had courted controversy for all the wrong reasons, but the film still stood the test of time and has been hailed as cinematic milestone. Seema Biswas won a national award for her eponymous portrayal. Her dedicated act for the film made her push herself to the extent of going full monty, battered and bruised post being gang-raped for three days straight, in front of a speechless crowd of fifty.

Seema Biswas in the infamous scene from the film

The heart-numbingly disturbing sequence leaves one with a sense of adverse bitterness, something one would have felt after watching Monica Bellucci's ordeal from the borderline disconcerting 'Irreversible' by Gaspar Noé.

Shaitaan:

Kirti Kulhari had a major career break in this year's 'Pink,' courtesy her exemplary performance in the highly acclaimed film. But she was noticed for her grittily urbane act in Bejoy Nambiar's 'Shaitan'.

A particularly alarming scene from the film had the actress being raped before her friends venture in and murder the perpetrators.

A still from the scene from Shaitan

Speaking of the scene, the actress had said, "Pink was an extremely difficult film to make but it was easier for me, relatively, since I'd played out a rape sequence in Shaitan. Though it was all simulation, such scenes are extremely difficult film to make, since they have a prolonged effect on you."

(With inputs from Ashwin Vinayan)