Actor Rahul Bagga, who has been cast as Mastram in a movie on the Hindi pornographic literature's resident-guru, says there's no space for embarrassment for an actor like him. He had apprehensions about the movie turning out as a C-grade entertainer, but not about feeling embarrassed.
The film, directed by Akhilesh Jaiswal, focusses on the country's well-known porn writer Mastram.
Rahul describes the film as a "fictional biography of a real guy, whose pen name was Mastram. He wrote porn".
"The film speaks about how our society corners and forces a non-conformist to go against his dreams," he added.
Having read "enough of Mastram's porn" during his theatre days in Delhi, Rahul didn't have to go out of his way to prepare for the role.
"I had read Mastram for many years, so the words and subject were close to my life... basically relatable. So, preparation for my character was going on for the past 10 years," he said.
Was there any embarrassment in accepting the role?
"There was a thought about how the script would turn out. When my director Akhilesh Jaiswal told me the idea that he wants to make a film on Mastram, I was excited. Then it sunk into me that the film was about a porn writer.
"What kind of scenes would there be? How were they going to shoot the porn angle? Would the end product come across as a C-grade film as it had no big name attached to it?
"These were the concerns which came up after the initial excitement, but embarrassment doesn't have space in an actor's life. An actor like me cannot afford the luxury of embarrassment.
"I'm glad that the people whom I am answerable to are only my parents and a couple of close ones. The rest of the society and people stopped existing for me the day I started doing theatre," added the actor, who was seen in "Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana".
The Mastram movie required Rahul to perform a lovemaking scene, but he clarifies that "it's a film about a porn writer and it is dealt with in an intelligent way".
"There is no vulgarity or sleaze or skin show or cleavage or bikini. Considering the fact that this film is inspired by a real-life person who revolutionised and brought out hidden emotions of a man and woman in Hindi porn literature, if there are sex scenes, they are an integral part of this story and not by the demand of any producer or for some commercial reasons," he said.