Kriti Kharbanda finds kissing onscreen scary

Kriti has worked extensively in down South, but had inhibitions while filming the intimate scenes. “My first kiss was with Emraan Hashmi and I was extremely scared. I was saying to myself ‘I don’t know how am I going to do this.’ It freaked me out and how. I was very uncomfortable about it because I was doing it with a stranger which became very difficult for me,” Kriti told PTI in an interview.

Directed by Vikram, Bhatt, Raaz Reboot is the fourth film in the horror film franchise Raaz. The 27-year-old actress made her acting debut with the Telugu film Boni in 2009 before bagging her breakthrough role with romantic comedy Googly. Kriti says when Raaz Reboot was offered to her, she was a bit apprehensive as the character in the film was in contrast to the roles she had done in the past. “Initially I had a lot of inhibitions. I have been very active in South, especially in the past three years, and the image I have there is of a sweet-girl-next-door. But ‘Raaz’ was in a different space. In the film, I have an ex-lover, I also have a husband, I get possessed, I have to kiss on-screen. It had ticked every box of how I am going to spook the living daylight of my audience,” she said.

The actress, however, was not bothered about the “serial kisser” image of her co-star, Emraan, and in fact credits the Azhar actor for starting the trend of kissing scenes in Bollywood. “His (Emraan’s) image didn’t make a difference to me. I feel he started the trend of kissing scenes. Today there is not one Hindi movie which doesn’t have a kissing scene. He went with it before the time and now when every Hindi film you see, it has one such scene because it is unfair to not have a kiss.”

Though she has been in the film industry for almost seven years with nearly 15 movies to her credit, Kriti says Raaz Reboot made her stronger and fearless as a person.
“I have changed so much post ‘Raaz’ as a person. I have become limitless and stronger. You don’t need that attitude to survive in Bollywood. But when you are doing a film like ‘Raaz’, you can’t go on set with inhibitions. Like, I had never kissed on screen before as it is not something I thought I would indulge in. But after I have done it, I have decided that I am never going to mark boundaries for the reason that I do not want to limit myself.”

Also starring Gaurav Arora, Raaz Reboot is set to release on September 16.
 

• Kriti Kharbanda
• Emraan Hashmi
• Raaz Reboot