Saqib Saleem recalls ‘awkward’ kiss with Randeep Hooda for Karan Johar’s film

‘Bombay Talkies’, an anthology of four short films directed by Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap, was widely acclaimed upon release in 2013. Among the film’s many highlights, there was a romantic scene between Saqib Saleem and Randeep Hooda. They played queer characters in the short, directed by Karan Johar.

In a recent interview, Saqib recalled the palpable awkwardness on set. Speaking to ‘Bollywood Bubble’, Saqib said, “When I was shooting for ‘Bombay Talkies’, there was a kissing scene between Randeep Hooda’s character and my character. I wouldn’t say, ‘Wow, what a memorable scene’, but I remember vividly, everybody on set was extremely tense. They were all thinking, ‘How are we going to shoot it, how many people will be present on set, who will say what?’”

Saqib, however, revealed that the ‘scene was shot in a single take’. He said, “After the scene, Karan said, ‘Okay, got it, moving on’. Both Randeep and I looked at each other and then at Karan. We collectively said, ‘Hogaya?’ and he said, ‘Yes, look, it’s good’. We were like, ‘It’s okay. We don’t want to see it. You got what you wanted, right? That’s about it’.”

“I remember this clearly because back then people didn’t write good homosexual characters in films, they only used them for a sense of comedy. I think ‘Bombay Talkies’ was one of the first films that brought it into the mainstream and gave a leading man that sexuality. I feel that was quite a memorable scene. It had created a whole weird environment on set. Quite awkward.”

The short film was titled ‘Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh’. It was directed by Karan Johar and also starred Rani Mukerji.