Shalini Pandey says Maharaj’s ‘charan seva’ rape scene made her ‘anxious’: ‘I thought this girl is stupid, later realised…’

Shalini Pandey plays Kishori in YRF's Maharaj. The actor opened up about performing in the rape scene that left her anxious.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | June 28, 2024 03:18 PM IST

3 min read

Shalini Pandey in a still from Maharaj.

Shalini Pandey, who starred alongside Junaid Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat and Sharwari in YRF’s Maharaj, recently opened up about the rape scene in the film where her character is forced to engage in sex with the self-styled godman Maharaj, played by Jaideep. Shalini said that performing the scene made her extremely anxious. Shalini said that when she read it first, she felt like her character was stupid but she later realised that it was her conditioning that made her believe what she was doing was fine.

In the film, Jaideep plays the titular godman in the 1800s who has created a myth around himself where young women are made to believe that they have to submit themselves to him in a ceremony called ‘charan seva’. He has made them believe that getting raped by him is holy in some way and the society has turned a blind eye towards it. “When I actually did that scene with the Maharaj, the charan seva scene… till the time I actually did it, I did not realise what impact it had on me because I did the scene and suddenly, I went out and I told my team I don’t want to be in a closed room, I need time, I need some fresh air, I am getting a little anxious,” she told Bollywood Hungama.

Shalini said that she told her director Siddharth P Malhotra about it and Jaidepp, who was her co-actor in this scene “obviously understood.” Talking further about the scene, Shalini said that her ideologies in real life are “very different” and when she read the script first, she saw Kishori, her character, as a stupid woman.

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“Playing Kishori who is such a naive sweet… Initially, when I read it, I was like bevakoof hai yeh toh (she is stupid) but then I realised she is not stupid, she just doesn’t know any better. She was conditioned so much that she believed everything she was doing,” she said and added, “When you feel and do it and think about it, it shatters you. Then you realise she is not stupid. I hope she knew that this was happening to her.”

Shalini Pandey has previously done films like Arjun Reddy and Jayeshbhai Jordaar.

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