Indresh Malik was ‘Hesitant’ to do Same-Sex Intimate Scene

Indresh Malik opened up about his intimate scene with Jason Shah in Heeramandi and admitted that he was “hesitant” to do it at first.

Indresh, who played Ustaadji in the Netflix series, explained that his hesitancy came from the fact that he did not have much experience with “male proximity”.

However, he trusted Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Indresh said: “I trusted Sanjay sir’s vision for that intimate scene.

“I completely surrendered to him as my director. He had to guide me, and I needed to understand his vision for my performance.

“If my director, especially someone like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is happy, I have no questions. I was confident but not overconfident.

“I talked to Jason for a few minutes before we started the scene. I had never been in such close proximity with a male before.

“The character was queer, and portraying that level of male intimacy was necessary to convey the emotion.

“We discussed it, and Sanjay sir allowed us to improvise within the set boundaries.

“The last lines I delivered were improvised, I just went with the flow and said whatever came to mind. When Jason picked me up, I kept speaking spontaneously.”

Detailing his initial hesitancy, Indresh said:

“I was initially sceptical and hesitant. I thought, ‘Either belong to someone or make someone your own; I can’t be indecisive, laughs’.

“I decided to give it my best and leave the rest to my team, who were there to make the decisions.”

He added: “Jason and I made each other comfortable.

“One evening, we were sitting in our vanity van, having snacks, and I suggested we just talk to each other.

“We decided to handle the scene on our own and discussed how we would approach it.”

“Everything just went with the flow. We didn’t need to overthink it.”

Indresh Malik previously said Bhansali was impressed with his performance in the ‘nath’ scene and gave him Rs. 500 as a token of gratitude.

He recalled: “The scene for my character felt like, there was someone who accepted me, the one who gave me warmth.

“Wearing ‘nath’ means gaining respect.

“That moment when the scene was done, I was crying for almost five minutes or more. I can’t cry silently, so I howled. I was howling and crying like a child, there was a pin-drop silence.”

Sanjay Leela Bhansali asked him: “Why are you crying, you did so well.”

The filmmaker then hugged Indresh and gave him the money.