Taking sex seriously: Aastha Khanna, India’s first intimacy coordinator

Aastha Khanna, the country’s first certified intimacy coordinator on creating a safe space for actors on set and why she’s put together a collective for India

In 1985, Saagar was in the news for many reasons. It was director Ramesh Sippy’s first romance after Shakti (1982), Shaan (1980) and Sholay (1975). It was also Dimple Kapadia’s comeback film, opposite her Bobby co-star, Rishi Kapoor. It also happened to be the movie with an allegedly inadvertent topless scene. . The story goes something like this. Rishi Kapoor’s character, Ravi, sees Mona (Kapadia) for the first time as she comes out of the sea. Not quite covered in foam, Mona wraps a towel around herself, which slips for a second. ‘The towel slipping was an accident’, ‘We didn’t realise the cameras were rolling’ — these were the reasons trotted out at the time, still not explaining how the frame made it beyond the cutting floor. Fast forward to 35 years later, post #metoo and with intimacy coordinators now on film sets, how would this have played out?