Tamannaah is one of the country's most popular actresses and for good reason. For over a career spanning nearly two decades, the actress has worked in Bollywood as well as south Indian films, impressing fans with her screen presence, acting prowess and dancing skills. Now, for her upcoming film Lust Stories 2, the actress has stepped out of her comfort zone and performed intimate scenes on-screen for the first time in her career. In an interview with Film Companion, Tamannaah revealed that she has broken her 18-year-old no-kiss policy for her segment in Lust Stories 2. In the segment directed by Sujoy Ghosh, she will be seen opposite Vijay Varma for the first time.
During the interaction, Tamannaah said, “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.'"
Explaining why she broke her rule for the film, Tamannaah said, "I was that person so for me it has been an evolution to kind of get out of that framework, which served a certain audience because India is huge and there are so many parts of India that still needs to evolve. There is a lot of evolution that has happened already, thanks to even internet and social media, everyone has information at their fingertips but I do feel like — because everyone's consuming so much content — 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."
She further said that working in Lust Stories 2 also quashed several misconceptions that she had about such scenes. “In fact, after doing a kissing scene in Lust Stories 2, it demystified it for myself. It's like holding this cup and drinking coffee. It is even more technical. You go back, you look at it as how have you done it and then they will tell you how to correct it. So honestly, I was very happy I did it because it demystified it for me,” Tamannaah explained.
In the same interview, Tamannaah has also spoken about her relationship with Vijay Varma. “He [Vijay Verma] is someone with whom I bonded very organically. He is someone who really came to me with all his guard down, then it became really easy for me to let all my guard down…He is a person whom I care about deeply. He is my happy place,” she said.
On the work front, Tamannaah is currently seen on Jee Karda which is her first web series. The show is streaming on Prime Video.