📣 For more lifestyle news, click here to join our WhatsApp Channel and also follow us on Instagram
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Actor Priya Gill recently revisited one of the most awkward moments of her acting career — having to slap Shah Rukh Khan on camera. In a resurfaced interview with Lehren, she recalled feeling deeply embarrassed and overwhelmed during the shoot for the film Josh. “I’ll tell you, the most embarrassing thing I did in my entire film career was when I slapped Shah Rukh,” she said. The scene was part of a song sequence shot in Goa, and despite several takes, the director kept pushing her to deliver the slap with more intensity.
She continued, “I had to slap him, in the song, at the beginning of the song. We were doing this repeated, repeated thing in Goa. And Mansoor kept telling me, ‘Priya, it’s not coming with the kind of force that the girl is mad at him.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, okay,’ and I kept trying, you know. And Shah Rukh said, ‘You hit me… hit me.’ And Mansoor said, ‘Hit him, hit him,’ you know? I had to punch him. I couldn’t help it. Oh my gosh, I’ll never forget that.”
Gill described the immediate aftermath of the take as dead silence. “I think there was complete silence. Everybody just… the camera kept rolling. I think the director forgot to say cut because of the reaction,” she said. “I remember KV, the cameraman, telling me, ‘Girls are going to hate you because you hit Shah Rukh.’ I think he was really sweet about it because after, he was explaining to me how it should be done right, and I didn’t know what to say.”
Counselling psychologist Anjali Gursahaney tells indianexpress.com, “Performance pressure — particularly in high-stakes or high-power environments — can significantly alter our emotional regulation, body control, and even sense of identity. Under pressure, the brain often activates the amygdala, which controls our fear and threat responses. Even though the threat is social or reputational, the body responds as if it’s physical.”
Performance situations demand simultaneous emotional regulation, memory recall (lines, cues), and physical precision. Too much mental juggling can lead to emotional leaks—such as over-apologising, guilt, or tears—because we run out of cognitive resources to self-regulate.
Gursahaney adds, “Being observed (especially by someone you admire) activates a kind of “inner spotlight,” which makes us hyper-aware of our actions. This often leads to clumsy or exaggerated behavior due to overcorrection.”
In Priya’s case, Gursahaney says probably wasn’t just slapping SRK the actor—she was subconsciously negotiating power, fear, and visibility in front of the crew, the director, and an idol, all while being filmed.
We admire authority figures from a distance, Gurasahaney explains, often idealising them. When we finally interact with them on equal footing, our brain can’t reconcile ‘I’m just me’ with ‘They’re a legend.’ This creates status dissonance: We feel like we don’t belong or haven’t “earned” the right to be in that space.
Gurasahaney states, “The admiration creates a form of mental hierarchy. You unconsciously self-minimise: second-guessing your actions, being overly polite, or hesitating to assert your expertise.. Because of the perceived gap, we assume their opinion is more valid or final, making us shrink.
When a person we idolised becomes our peer, it forces a sudden upgrade in self-concept, which not everyone is ready for. Until you recalibrate, you may feel awkward, uncertain, or overly deferential.
