Neena Gupta recalls filming her first kissing scene for TV show: Rinsed my mouth later

Indian actress Neena Gupta has always been known for her bold choices. The actress who was a well-known face on TV in the early 1980s and 1990s before she switched to films full-time, recently recalled her experience of shooting her first on-screen kissing scene. In a recent interview, while promoting her upcoming project Lust Stories 2, Neena revealed she had to kiss co-star Dilip Dhawan in a Zee TV show called Dillagi many years ago. While she had shot for the scene, it was ultimately axed on the editing table and did not air.

Neena Gupta on filming a kissing scene

While speaking to Instant Bollywood, Neena Gupta recalled, "It had the first-ever lip-to-lip kissing scene on Indian TV. Main to raat bhar soyi nahi ki main kiss kaise karungi (I couldn’t sleep all night wondering how would I kiss). It wasn’t like he was a friend, we were acquaintances. He was good-looking, but that doesn’t really matter in these situations, because physically and mentally, I wasn’t ready. Physically, I am not comfortable. I was so tense, but I eventually convinced myself that I am an actor and I will have to do it. This is like some aren't able to do crying scenes, some are not able to do laughter scene. So I took it as a challenge. And I did it. As soon as it ended, I rinsed my mouth with Dettol. It was so difficult for me to kiss somebody who I don’t know, whom I am not in love with."

However, the scene was ultimately not part of the show as it did not go down well with the audience. Neena Gupta revealed that while it was included in the promo, it was ultimately removed as it brought in negative publicity for the show.

"The channel thought that they will boast about it in the promo, calling it the first kissing scene on Indian television and all that. They had to remove it because it went against the publicity, it went against them. There used to be just one television in each house and people said how would they watch it with their children,” she said.

She also spoke about filming an intimate scene in the 1984 film Utsav which co-starred Rekha. Neena played the role of Madanika, a courtesan slave in Vasantsena's (Rekha) house in the film. It had a few intimate scenes featuring Shankar Nag and Neena Gupta.

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Neena Gupta in Lust Stories 2

The actress will be next seen in a role in the anthology series Lust Stories 2 which will be out on Netflix on July 30.
The promos show her as an old woman, stressing on the need to have a 'trial run' before two people (played by Angad Bedi and Mrunal Thakur) get married.