Kiara Advani, who has given three hits out of five in her career spanning four years, shot to fame instantly after the release of Netflix’s Lust Stories. The film is an anthology consisting of four short films, one of which is directed by Karan Johar and starred Vicky Kaushal alongside Kiara. While the film was an instant hit and garnered applause and criticism alike, one of the things that singularly received flak was Kiara’s masturbation scene in the film.

In an interview with a leading daily, she spoke about her journey through the short film and the infamous scene. She said, “I did it because I had no reservations or inhibitions. That’s why my performance in that scene wasn’t hampered in any way. I didn’t overthink about whether people would be ready for it. Of course, there are other actresses who have also done this and I’m happy it started a conversation.”

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Director Karan has a way of bringing out issues through his moves in the most subtle ways and Lust Stories was no different. “It was the humour that made me confident and uninhibited to do the scene. It didn’t cross the line of vulgarity and that’s why it worked. It wasn’t meant to titillate because the minute it does, it becomes unnecessary. After doing this particular shot, I’ve realized it’s all about the timing in comedy. The more rehearsed you are, the more boring it gets. All our scenes were hilarious, and Karan had so many inputs while shooting it as well” she added.

Lately, many films have openly spoken about female sexual pleasure and tried to defeat the stigma around it. It was no easy for Kiara to do something that was considered a taboo. “From the time I heard it till the time the scene was shot, I had different thoughts. Just a week before the shoot, we did a costume look test. I asked Karan if we were going to do any workshop. He told me, ‘No, you just come on the set, act, and have fun.’ I Google-ed how a vibrator works and checked out a few scenes, too. The fact that we didn’t prep helped us keep everything spontaneous” Kiara revealed.

Now that she has been lauded for being courageous enough to pull off a scene like that, she still finds herself in the clutches of insecurities. “I’d be careful about an intense lovemaking scene. I need to know how it’s being shot because I’ve reservations about how much to show or not. Anything that’s there just for effect and not in context to the story, doesn’t work for me” she concluded.