When Neelima Azeem motivated Amrita Rao to slap Shahid in a scene

Picture Courtesy: Official Instagram Account/Amrita Rao and YouTube

Amrita Rao made her Bollywood debut with Raj Kanwar's Ab Ke Baras in 2002 but became a popular name after the success of Ken Ghosh's Ishq Vishk in 2003. A film majorly starring new faces, it went on to do well commercially and critically due to its music and freshness.

And Rao has recently reminisced the shooting experience and how Kapoor's mother Neelima Azeem motivated and helped her during a scene where she had to slap his character at the interval point. In case you don't remember, Azeem played the role of his mother in the film.

In an interview with Zoom, Rao said, "I remember it was a very difficult sequence to shoot and it was just before the interval when Rajiv and Payal had a fight and the brief was that your performance should be such that I want the audience to be completely divided; the girls should say Payal is right and the guys should say Rajiv is right."

She added, "At the end of the sequence, I had to slap Shahid. The director wanted me to actually, really slap him and he was very particular that it can't be acting or that I am going to add a soundtrack and you have to slap... He wanted that reaction of being slapped from Rajiv."

She then revealed how Azeem came to her aid while filming this scene, "This was the first time I was slapping someone for real... Something interesting happened during that, so Shahid's mother, Neelima Azim ji, who is also a wonderful actress would mostly hang out with us during the shoot and since I had no formal training in acting, she used to give a lot of tips. I remember that she was there at the corner of my eye standing and motivating me saying 'Amrita you have to do this, you have to slap him.'"

Talking about the aftermath, she said, "It was funny and at the same time, very encouraging and finally, I did it and he was so happy with the reaction he got. At the end of the shoot, we were all so relieved because it was a very critical scene. That moment is so fresh in my mind."

Rao and Kapoor later went on to collaborate on films like Vaah! Life Ho To Aisi, Shikhar, and Vivah. Rao, in the last 17 years, has also been a part of films like Masti, Main Hoon Na, Deewar, My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves, ShortKut, Jolly LLB, Satyagraha, and Singh Saab The Great. After a gap of over six years, she was seen with Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Thackeray in 2019.

Also Read: Amrita Rao Decides To Forgo The Rent Of Her Tenants Owing To The Lockdown

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