Paoli demands house full while shooting erotic scenes

When declarations were made about Paoli Dam being ‘open’ about matters related to exposure, erotica and sex, one didn’t have the faintest of clues that this would pretty much be in a literal sense. After all it is not without a reason that the saying goes that ‘there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip’. While Bollywood has indeed grown over a period of time and now The Dirty Picture too is seeing a blockbuster status for itself, courtesy family audience thronging theatres as well, when it comes to absolute nudity there are still taboos attached.

However, the way Paoli went about doing her ‘job’ shocked many amongst the cast and crew of Hate Story, not to mention her director Vivek Agnihotri and producer Vikram Bhatt as well.

Informs our well placed source from the crew, "It was a basic understanding between Paoli and the makers of the film that there would be ample skin show involved. In fact since Hate Story has anyways been promoted as an erotica, it was a given that the leading lady would have to shed her inhibitions in a major way. Not that other actresses haven’t done that in the past. However, Hate Story was going to be a different ballgame altogether. It went on floors as a ‘holds-no-bar’ affair and what Paoli ended up giving to the film stunned everyone associated with it."

What indeed shocked Vikram and Vivek was Paoli’s demand which totally caught them unaware. Apparently, the Bengali bombshell declared that if at all she had to perform any love making scenes for the camera, they would have to be in full view of the crew instead of making the sets seem like a restricted zone. Her logic was that this way she would be less conscious of the body display in the offering and hence would be able to concentrate on getting the ‘scene’ and the ‘setting’ right.

"Vivek couldn’t believe his ears when he heard that", the source continues, "Even though the makers were prepared to receive a huge list of do’s and don’ts from the actress, Paoli was overtly forthcoming and just wanted to understand the context of the scene in a right manner."

Due to these reasons, Vivek and Vikram went all out to ensure that Paoli didn’t feel apprehensive due to explicit content of Hate Story. To protect her interests, they set the scene in such a manner that Paoli was called on the sets only after all preliminary measures had been taken care of and there was bare minimum crew surrounding her during the actual take.

"In fact first couple of scenes were shot with such precautions", says a close associate of the director, "Vivek Sir warned his crew that no one would be allowed with cell-phones on the sets. Also, he kept everyone out of the sets and there were a handful of technicians present when Paoli was getting into her act. However to his surprise, after a few minutes Paoli called him aside and said that she was feeling rather uncomfortable with such a setting. Her reason was that with such a transition between a regular scene shot amidst a huge crew and an explicit scene being shot in private made her further uneasy. She wanted Vivek and the rest of the crew to treat such scenes naturally instead of making a fuss about it."

Though Vivek was shocked initially, he understood where was Paoli coming from and decided to can the shots as per her way. Once the camera started rolling, Paoli too occupied the stage just like she would do for any other scene and smiled her way through these scenes.

When contacted Vivivek confirmed that Paoli had indeed out forth such unique condition. "Yes, Paoli did talk to me about it. She said that since the entire ecosystem was being changed with just a few men in the room when such scenes were shot, it was becoming a tad unnatural surrounding for her. She asked me to treat such normally instead of making it a restricted zone since it was only making her further self conscious."

"She in fact joked that we should shoot all bedroom scenes like the way a dining table scene or a dance sequence is shot", he continues, "Thanks to the girl, we had absolutely no problem about living up to the promise of Hate Story bringing in a new dimension to Bollywood erotic thrillers. The results are there to be seen."

Well, all we can say now is, this is one ‘story’ that not many are going to ‘hate’!