Actors Tamannaah Bhatia and Vijay Varma have been painting the town red with their chemistry both on-screen and off-screen. The real-life couple appeared together in a project for the first time in Lust Stories 2 released on June 29. The couple, who began dating after working on the project, has been making headlines for their love story. Now, in an interview with Pinkvilla, Sujoy Ghosh who directed their segment in Lust Stories 2 has spoken about casting the two stars together, given that he and the film played catalysts to their relationship. Explaining that it “just happened”, the director said, “I was working with Vijay on another film earlier and then Tamannaah came in. We both wanted to work together and it just happened. I gave them the script. Tamannaah liked the script, and Vijay liked the script. Tamannaah had some questions; Vijay answered those questions and then…game on."
Meanwhile, before Sujoy Ghosh answered the question, Amit Sharma and R Balki – who are also directors on the anthology film along with Konkona Sen Sharma – chipped in with some fun answers. While Amit Sharma said that Sujoy matched Vijay Varma and Tamannaah Bhatia's horoscopes with a pundit before getting them on board, R Balki said that Sujoy Ghosh had created a love story in his film.
Meanwhile, in another interview with Instant Bollywood, Vijay Varma opened up about Tamannaah Bhatia breaking her 18-year-old no-kiss policy for the Lust Stories 2 segment. Vijay Varma said, “I met her [Tamannaah] for the reading at Sujoy Ghosh's office. I think we broke the ice there. We shared our journey. She said ‘I have been working for the last 17 years. I had a no-kiss policy in my contract.' And then, she was like ‘I have not done anything like this before.' In the end, she told me that ‘You are the first actor I am going to be kissing on screen'. I was like ‘Thank you'.”
Tamannaah Bhatia also spoke about her decision to break her no-kiss policy in the film. “I really wanted to work with Sujoy and I'm really happy that he thought of me for this part especially because I have done literally no intimacy in my career or very little intimacy in my career. I was that audience that would get awkward and I was that audience that ‘main ye kabhi nahi karungi', ‘main kabhi nahi kiss karungi on-screen.'” She added, “I felt like as an actor, I don't want this to be something that is holding me back...This was purely a creative endeavour. Now, after 18 years, I am not trying to be famous. That is not my driving force."
Tamannaah Bhatia and Vijay Varma have confirmed that they are dating in several interviews. Their film is available for streaming on Netflix.