‘What if I feel something’: Kirti Kulhari on kissing Shefali Shah in ‘Human’

In their new series, Human, which is presently streaming on Disney+Hotstar, actors Shefali Shah and Kirti Kulhari are shown kissing. Kirti recently discussed the kiss and the training that an actor must go through before filming such intimate sequences in an interview. The performer claimed she was just concerned about being ‘turned on’ by the kiss, but her director insisted on 8-10 retakes.

Kirti told Hindustan Times that the process of filming such intimate sequences is ‘robotic,’ and that all an actor has to do is wait for the director to yell cut. “I think the most nervous person for the kissing moment was my director Mozez Singh,” the actor was quoted as saying. “What if I kiss her and feel something, what if I get turned on?” was all I could think. That’ll be interesting; I’ll have to sit back and consider whether I’m also looking at ladies.

That was the only thing I had at the time. We didn’t have any rehearsals. My director required us to do 8-10 takes in order to capture various angles of the kiss. We performed it the first time, and we were like, ‘OK,’ and I was relieved, thinking, ‘Thank God, koi feeling nahi aya (no feeling)’. Then Mozez returned and requested for more takes.”

Kirti went on to say that kissing a lady made her feel ‘strange.’ She explained that she is an actor who is aware of her responsibilities as a performer, but that it was strange for her to ‘create that chemistry for a woman.’ She went on to say that after a while, she convinced herself that it wasn’t so much about the gender as it was about the other person’s feelings.