'I was feeling sick before hitting Taapsee': Pavail Gulati on shooting slap scene in Thappad

The day we were supposed to shoot it in the night, my face shrank and everyone was coming up to me and telling me that you look sick today, said Pavail
Anubhav Sinha, Pavail Gulati and Taapsee Pannu
Anubhav Sinha, Pavail Gulati and Taapsee Pannu

Anubhav Sinha's latest offering, Thappad, has made quite a few noises, all in the right direction. Revolving around a young married couple, Vikram (Pavail Gulati) and Amrita (Taapsee Pannu), the film features how one day, when Amrita is slapped by Vikram in front of guests at a house party, the incident triggers off a chain reaction that leads to self-realisation for her, leading to her walking out of the marriage.

In an interview, Taapsee had recounted how nervous Pavail was when they were shooting the slap scene. The actor took six retakes to get the correct angle and impact. Recently, when The Quint asked him about the scene, the actor elaborated on what had happened while admitting feeling sick that day. 

"The day we were supposed to shoot it in the night, my face shrank and everyone was coming up to me and telling me that you look sick today. I was actually feeling sick. I was actually feeling like I will puke sometime. I was very reluctant to hit her. It was just not happening. It was... I would turn out and I would stop. It was one of those things. It would miss the face. It wasn’t getting to the face. After the third take, it got to her face and the impact wasn’t right and the sound was off and by then her face was red. The fourth, fifth, sixth take happened and Taapsee came to me and told ‘just go for it. Don’t think about it’. And then the seventh take happened, and sir said ‘okay’. That’s when I hugged her and I just ran. I was really, really... I was done with that scene," said Pavail in the interview. 

In another interview, Pavail also admitted finding this role risky in the beginning because of the slap scene. "It was risky for me. People might just dislike me because I play a character who slaps a woman. But once I started reading the script, I realised that he is a victim of the situation too. This film shows both sides of the story, on why we often take our loved ones for granted and how social conditioning is responsible for our actions. It questions many age-old practices," he had told IANS. 

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