Ileana D'Cruz recalls 'weird' instance of director dropping a ceramic shell on her navel

Objectification of women in the Indian film industry has been a norm since decades. The rain songs, right from those featuring Mandakini, Zeenat Aman to Raveena Tandon have attained a cult status today, but there have always been debated for its picturisation. Close-up shots of the female actor’s body, ‘item numbers’, and controversial song lyrics have dominated the film industry since long. However, celebrities have been raising their voice towards it and many leading stars have been making a conscious effort to not include such scenes in the movies. As far as the South film industry is concerned, close-up shots of the woman’s navel are extremely common. Many of the well-known names who had ventured into the film industry through South have expressed their thoughts on the filmmakers' ‘obsession’ with the midriff. Ileana D’Cruz, who also shot to fame through the South film industry, recently recalled in an interview how her debut film’s director insisted on dropping a ceramic shell on her navel for a scene. While the then debutante found it ‘weird’, she gave in to the request, while the director said it was ‘beautiful.’ 

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In a recent interview with an entertainment portal, Ileana revealed how the character in her debut was attached to a particular shell. The director decided to incorporate a scene where a ceramic shell falls in slow motion on her navel, she revealed. The actor shared that when told about the scene, she did not know how to react to it and thought it was ‘weird’. Ileana stated that she went and asked her director why he thought  about such a scene, and why he was taking shots of her navel. The director told her it was a very ‘feminine’ and ‘beautiful’ thing. Ileana said she was ‘young’ and did not understand what cinema meant before agreeing to do the scene. The Main Tera Hero star said the shooting even ‘hurt’ her as the shell was heavy. 

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Not the first time 

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Previously, Taapsee Pannu had also expressed her thoughts on a similar incident. For one of her initial scenes in films, a director insisted on dropping a cocunut on her navel. She had however, apologised to veteran director Raghavendra Rao after backlash.   

Meanwhile, Ileana featured in Pagalpanti. The Anees Bazmee comedy hit the screens last Friday. The movie also featured John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Kriti Kharbanda, Pulkit Samrat, Arshad Warsi and Saurabh Shukla. 

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