Radhika Apte has built a reputation for speaking plainly about the film industry’s working conditions. During promotions for her upcoming show Akka, she added a specific memory to that record: an action film where a costume demand became a weeks-long negotiation.
The demand on set
In an interview with News18, Apte said the team asked her to wear a shirt without a bra and keep the buttons open for an action sequence. She replied that they should think about the physics of an action scene. The exchange, she said, did not end there. The conversation over how much she would show continued for about two weeks.
“They asked me, ‘Will you show this one? Should you show that?'” she recalled. “It was absolutely traumatizing; it’s genuinely very depressing.”
The difference is timing
Apte’s point is not that nudity itself is unacceptable. She said she can make an informed choice when a filmmaker explains a character’s look at the signing stage. The difficulty arises when that vision arrives days before a scene.
“Tell me very clearly what is your vision for the character. Don’t tell me this two days before the scene; that’s where the problem lies.”
That distinction is useful for an audience that follows both film craft and industry power. A role that calls for nudity may be acceptable if it is disclosed upfront; a late demand changes the terms after consent has been given.
Intimacy coordinators are necessary but not independent
Apte welcomed the arrival of intimacy coordinators as a positive change. But she noted that they are hired by producers. If they stand by actors, she said, she has seen them lose their jobs. Some change their position because they must; others hold the line and little changes.
This matters because Hindi cinema has begun treating intimacy coordinators as a modern safeguard. The weakness Apte identifies is structural: a safeguard is only as strong as its independence from the person it is meant to constrain.
One set out of ten
Apte was careful not to describe the whole industry this way. Most people she has worked with, she said, have treated her with complete respect: nine sets out of ten. But the tenth still exists, and she still cannot name it publicly.
“Going home, I feel: When will I be able to speak out?” she said. “That’s the problem, and I don’t know the answer.”
What the record suggests
For producers and line producers, the interview points to a simple operating standard:
- Put costume, nudity and intimacy requirements on the table at the signing stage, not in a pre-scene negotiation.
- Give intimacy coordinators authority independent of the producers who pay them.
- Treat an actor’s refusal as a boundary, not as the beginning of a two-week pressure campaign.
Source: The Times of India
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