Nothing slapdash about this scene

Nothing slapdash about this scene

Actor Sharad Kelkar floors his heroine Gunjan Walia with a slap that landed too hard

Sapana Patil

Our soaps are defined by the ubiquitous slap. Whether it's a family fight or a professional jealousy, most soap operatic feelings are vented through the slap. Naturally, most on-screen slaps are fake, delivered in the air.

Recently, however, there was this case of a real slap on the sets of Zee TV's Sinndoor Tere Naam Ka. Gunjan Walia and Sharad Kelkar (Naina and Rudr) were shooting for a scene in which Naina was trying to rape Rudr (a la Priyanka Chopra in Aitraaz). This scene was followed by Rudr slapping Naina.

Now Sharad probably wanted to give his best shot. So he put all his emotions behind the slap. The result was a stunned Gunjan being floored.

Gunjan recalls the incident, "Yes I fell down after Sharad hit me. Actually, I was not feeling well that day. Moreover, I had not eaten anything and was anyway feeling weak towards the end of the day. But I continued to shoot because it was an important scene and we wanted it to be shot well. Sharad, by mistake, slapped me so hard that I lost my balance and landed on the floor."

She adds, "Sharad apologised to me for his roughness. But the funniest part was that the unit loved the scene – for its natural look! Of course, the shot was approved in one take! Had Sharad slapped me harder, I would not have been able to shoot that day!"

Kelkar laughs when asked about the incident. "It was a cheat-shoot. I just had to swing my arm towards her face and create an impression that I was slapping her," he says. "But she made the mistake of covering her face with her hand. This increased the impact of the slap, and she fell down. Her falling was a part of the script – only, here she didn't have to put on an act!"