The female characters in Sacred Games - Radhika Apte, Kubbra Sait, Rajshri Deshpande - have been garnering a lot of attention from the audience, and rightly so. We spoke to actor and activist Rajshri Deshpande who plays Subhadra, gangster Ganesh Gaitonde’s wife. Rajshri candidly spoke about shooting the nude scenes with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and more.
Congratulations! Everybody is appreciating Sacred Games. What are the reviews that you have been getting?
Rajshri Deshpande: People loved the innocence of Subhadra. They loved the boldness and strength of the character. People were like, ‘That scene where you are eating jalebis, such innocent eyes you have.’ People are talking about great things. ‘You are so strong and you over power him (Nawazuddin Siddiqui)’. Of course, nobody can over power anyone, it’s all character-driven.
There are a lot of sex scenes between you and Nawaz. As a viewer, it looked very natural but when you are shooting, it’s a totally different ball game. So what was that like?
Rajshri: We shot in a very close set. We had a very comfortable atmosphere. There was no pressure or anything, and of course we had a lot of women on set. There is so much respect.
We are not titillating anyone, we are just showing the love between a husband and his wife. It’s not being shot in a way where the camera is slowly going on her while she is opening her button, nothing. It just quickly happens and we move on. I didn’t have any inhibitions because it is a part of their narrative structure.Rajshri Deshpande, Actor
There are some very intelligent writers on board, Varun Grover, Smita Singh, Vasant Nath, all these people must have thought something about it, right? It’s their structure, it’s their vision. So there has to be some meaning to it, nobody wants to just put a nude scene there. The way it has been shown, it is beautiful for a lot of people. But yes, there are some people, we all know, they have problem with everything. Even if you wear burkha they will look at women in the same way. I also had these things in my mind but then if I think so much then I won’t be able to do anything.
After the series came out you have been receiving lewd messages and been called a “porn star”, the nude scene video has been going viral. How are you dealing with it?
There was one point where I was definitely very sad and angry but that moment has also gone now. I am doing so much work that I don’t have time for all this.Rajshri Deshpande, Actor
You can’t do anything. What do I say to these people? They are sick people, they need to get treated. I have to ignore and I have to work towards the society’s mindset. We need to understand why they are thinking like that. They need to understand what they are thinking is completely wrong that’s how there will be awareness. They don’t have that kind of sensibility. They must be thinking in one particular way, which I can’t change.
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