Actor Sai Pallavi, who was promoting her upcoming film Shyam Singha Roy, shut down a question from an interviewer who insisted on asking her co-stars Nani and Krithi Shetty about an intimate scene from the film. In an interview with a local media outlet, Sai Pallavi was promoting the film along with Nani, Krithi Shetty and Madonna Sebastian, when the interviewer referred to a scene from the trailer which shows Nani and Krithi Shetty kissing. When the interviewer asked which of the two actors felt more comfortable doing the scene, Sai Pallavi said the question itself was uncomfortable, and that the scene was done as a part of their job.
Addressing Nani, the interviewer said he had never been seen in such scenes before, and asked the two actors who felt comfortable and who felt uncomfortable during the kissing scene. Sai Pallavi interjected saying the question itself must be making them more uncomfortable. “Everyone has signed on to do the film. They agreed to do it. A comfortable zone was created and the film was completed and will be delivered to the audience. These are the actors Nani and Krithi Shetty. When you ask them such questions, it’s obviously a bit weird and uncomfortable,” Sai Pallavi said politely, smiling throughout. Krithi Shetty, who is the youngest among the four actors, added that it must be seen as just the characters being intimate and not the actors themselves.
Referring to the song ‘Jala Jala Jalapaatham’ from Krithi Shetty’s debut Uppena, which also features intimate scenes, the interviewer asked, “This film also seems to have some romance.” Krithi responded by saying the scene isn’t gratuitous but vital to move the story forward. The interviewer pressed on, asking if there was only one such scene. To this, Sai Pallavi again politely interjected saying, “You’re asking everything. Isn’t this wrong?”
Nani also responded saying, “Once we decide to do a scene, agreeing that it’s important to the film, we are just two professional actors trying to get the best impact from the scene.”
While this portion of the interview seems to have been removed from the media outlet’s YouTube channel, a few video clips were circulated on Twitter.
The interviewer also asked Krithi and Madonna about their work equation and asked, “What did you two talk about during work breaks? You must have talked about Nani. When two girls meet, they must’ve talked only about Nani,” to which the actors replied that they had a lot of other things to talk about, like family and food.
She later also asked Nani if he doesn’t like “glamorous heroines”, leading to another awkward question on what glamour means and whether the women present met the criteria.
Unrelated to the interview, the kissing scene had earlier also led to conversations on social media on how appropriate it was for a young actor like Krithi Shetty to be asked to act in intimate scenes with male actors much older than her, the power dynamic on film sets between filmmakers, star heroes and newcomers, and the necessity of having intimacy coordinators to ensure the actors are comfortable.