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Acting as an art form demands almost chameleon-like skills, and one needs to hate and love at the press of a button. You would think that romantic and intimate scenes would be that much harder to shoot, but not for actor Girija Oak. In a recent interview, Oak debunked some myths about shooting such scenes and said that most of them are shot without the co-star even present, hence making it very mechanical.
While appearing on Lallantop, Oak was asked about her process of getting into a state of mind where she can successfully romance a stranger. The actor said that she has been asked the same question, especially by a lot of women. Calling it an interesting conversation to have, the actor explained that there is no room for any true feeling on set, as everything is very technical and you have at least 100 sets of eyes on you all the time.
She said, “The ACs are switched off to not disrupt the sound, and you are constantly sweating. There is a mic attached to you, and someone is holding a hair dryer just to dry off your sweat. Someone will come and say the light is less from below, so a piece of thermocol comes in to reflect light on your face. Another person is checking your hair. In that situation, when so many people are looking at you critically, how will you romance?”
She further broke down intimate scenes and said, “Someone asked me how kissing on screen feels. I said it feels like kissing cardboard. There can be no feeling. Everything is mechanical. When you have to come close to the camera and say something, it’s your close-up. The other person isn’t there. You’re looking at a camera or the corner of a cutting stand, and I have had lovely conversations while looking at a piece of thermocol or a black cloth.”
While she has been an active actor since 2004, Girija caught the attention of audiences and critics after the short film Quarter (2020), directed by Navjyot Bandiwadekar. Before that she was also seen in Bollywood films like Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par (2007) and Krishna D K’s Shor in the City (2010). Recently Girija made an appearance in the Shah Rukh Khan-led Jawan (2023) and the Netflix film Inspector Zende (2025), starring Manoj Bajpayee.
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