Are there any ground rules or preferred positions? Do you have a safe word?" actor Eisha Chopra, who plays Riya, a sceptical documentary filmmaker in the short Call Him Eddy, asks Sanjay Suri, a professional cuddler called Edith. As they sit together "companioning", Edith or Eddy, tells her, "I don't kiss anyone. No problems with touching and cuddling. It's affection, without saying anything. If you allow yourself, it's magic."

As we complete six months of living in isolation, Eddy's words make us wonder when was the last time we hugged a friend? Would it be okay to hug our mother at the airport after a year-long gap? But director Sanjeev Vig or Suri had obviously not seen the all-isolating pandemic coming, when they started working on the short, presented by Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films. "When we started shooting last year, we were thinking that nowadays, we're all so consumed by virtual relationships that we're losing out on real ones, or emotional proximity," Suri tells us, adding that it's ironic that the short released amid these bleak times. Apart from virtual distractions, Vig shares that through Eddy's character, he also wanted to address the lack of human communication and intimacy. "Fortunately, the pandemic has made us realise the value of touch," he notes.