What role do intimacy coordinators play?

The experienced professionals help deal with awkwardness and help make cinema sets safe

Vishwa Karna, an actor in the Kannada and Telugu film industries, explaining his experience on the sets of his debut Kannada film ‘100’ (2021) says, “I had to molest Rachita Ram (a top female Kannada actor) in a scene. I was a bit nervous about how she would take it. While doing the trials I could see myself being hesitant.”

This is just a peek into the apprehension and awkwardness that go into scenes involving intimacy or violence. After the #MeToo allegations on film sets surfaced, the need for intimacy coordinators (IC) started gaining importance. The nervousness and discomfort on the sets are not gender-specific, says Vishwa Karna, and adds: “In the times of #MeToo, men should be more nervous than women.”

Kannada actor Sruthi Hariharan, who filed a #MeToo case against actor Arjun Sarja, is known for her nuanced role in the national award-winning film, ‘Nathicharami’ (2018) which explored female sexuality beyond traditional barriers.

Deepika Padukone and Siddhant
Chaturvedi in ‘Gehraiyaan’.

Sruthi says that by bringing in ICs, a woman might benefit more than men on the sets. “But I don’t want to create a gender divide. It can help men and women equally,” she adds. While there has been no intimacy coordination until now, she says it’s time this is brought into the picture.

Intimate scenes in Kannada

Kannada films largely shy away from intimate scenes, while commercial cinema stops at kissing. In films that require such scenes, the director also plays the role of intimacy director Champa Shetty, the director of ‘Koli Esru’ (2022), explains her approach. “In ‘Ammchhiyemba Nenapu’ (2018), we did not have to actually show the rape. A closed door and a wound on the female lead’s lips suggest the occurrence of the incident. But in ‘Koli Esru’, I had to show the heroine’s struggle with the harasser to develop the story further,” she says, adding that her discussion with Akshata Pandavapura, who played the lead, helped them navigate the scene.

She recalls Natana Manju (co-actor who played the character who harasses Akshatha) telling her that it is difficult for men as well. However, she personally does not find the need for a separate intimacy coordinator.

Greeshma Sridhar, who played the lead in ‘Nanu Kusuma’ (2023), which was released this week, says the rape scene in the movie is suggestive. However, the rapport between actors is important. “Sometimes we may be meeting the co-actor for the first time, and it can become awkward,” she adds.

“Intimacy professionals finish the shoot by blocking (deciding where actors stand on a set and how they move around over the course of filming) and filming it,” says Greeshma.

Slowly becoming a norm

Vinit Masram, a producer in the Hindi film industry, says intimacy coordination is a relatively fresh concept yet becoming more common these days.

Scenes of intimacy involve nudity, simulated sex, kissing, touching, flirtation, simulated sexual harassment/violence, or any other form of intimate contact. Hyper-sexualised shots of body parts, “item numbers”, the portrayal of hyper-sexualised characters, intimacy between minors, or characters that play family members or friends, should also be considered scenes of intimacy when relevant, says Aastha Khanna, a professional who has worked as the intimacy co-ordinator for many Netflix creations.

The southern industries have slowly started hiring ICs. The Hindi film industry and the OTT space are slowly bringing their production up to global best practices. “There are some big studios and production houses that have shows with intimate scenes but have never used an IC. They don’t fully understand what they bring to the table,” says Aastha. With such studios going for ICs, she foresees exponential growth.

Direction vs coordination

Neha Vyaso, an intimacy professional, who has worked with filmmaker Dar Gai for the Deepika Padukone-starrer ‘Gehraiyaan’, explains the difference between intimacy coordination and intimacy direction.

“Intimacy direction starts with the creative process — the script, referencing and figuring out how intimacy plays a role in the larger narrative. But intimacy coordination is focused on choreography, specifics, modesty garments, barriers, and safety. It focuses on making the scene authentic and aesthetic, but often not all intimacy coordinators are part of the creative process from the beginning,” she elaborates.

Intimacy directors are a part of the creative process, help build the narrative, have conversations around the story, conduct workshops for actors, and help build choreography on the sets, she says. "In the West, they talk about intimacy in an open way, but not in India,” says Neha.

She has been experimenting with tools Westerners have created and modified them to suit Indian filmmaking culture — for example, creating the language used for intimacy coordination. “Most of what we use as reference have white people. They are different from brown people. Lighting, framing, curves of the body, movement and many things are different. Here we take a mood reference and then work on the choreography,” she explains.

Neha says that before the shoot begins, they make sure the set has not more than four or five people, modesty garments and barriers are in place, and that discussions about the scene have happened. “We do two rehearsals with just the director and the director of photography and then we run the shoot. If at any point any actor feels uncomfortable, they just raise their hands — we educate the directors and everyone on the set that this can happen at any point,” she says.

Consent on the sets

Consent is not absolute yes or no — it is a spectrum. “It is not always verbal. We have to be able to recognise the difference between discomfort and traumatic experiences, between challenging and triggering, and understand consent not based on a single dimension. We have to make sure we are advocating for the artistes while also adhering to the director’s vision, making sure the action and choreography are authentic and aesthetic,” Neha says.

Intimacy coordinators have a huge impact on minimising situations of sexual harassment — giving the actors a vocabulary of consent, says Aastha. “An intimacy coordinator interrupts the power dynamic between the director/producer and actor or between two actors so that no one is coerced into doing something without their consent,” she adds. “However, no intimacy coordinator can commit to providing a safe space, given the number of variables at play,” she explains.

Vinit agrees sexual harassment and intimacy coordination aren't necessarily correlated because “intimacy coordinators are not moral police”. “It does help when you have an authority to help you guide through the sensitive landscape but the burden of eradicating such behaviour cannot be on them. That's the responsibility of people at the top of the hierarchy,” he asserts.