The beginning

Chapter 8

They began shooting for the song with Deepika in a red and black lehenga and Ranveer in an off-white dhoti. They shot for the song for three days, but Sanjay sir didn't seem to like it. "Something's not right," he said. "I'm just not feeling it." So they had a discussion, Deepika, Ranveer, the choreographers, the ADs, the costume designers, the sound designers, the cameramen and lighting technicians - everyone, essentially. After much debate, Sanjay sir came to the conclusion that Deepika's costume wasn't giving the desired effect. 

"I want you to be luminous in this. There's something pure about Leela in this moment. She's erotic love embodied," he mused. "I think we need to go lighter on the clothes as well as the makeup. Something that brings out the inner purity of her spirit. Something that is almost bridal. This is, after all, the moment they get married," he told the costume designers. "And can we get more of a golden light on them?" he asked the lighting technicians. "I want it to be intensely sensuous, almost divine," he looked at Ranveer and Deepika as the technicians dispersed to make the necessary changes. 

"This is your wedding night. You need to be completely lost in each other. Ranveer, think of her as the most beautiful woman you've ever seen, the most precious thing you've ever desired, now finally yours." He looked at Deepika. "Bachcha, you need to imagine that you've given up everything for him. Like he's the one true love of your life." Sanjay sir was no fool. He'd seen the way these two looked at each other. Now he needed them to lose their inhibitions and show what they had concealed. He walked away, leaving them to ruminate on his words.

Ranveer and Deepika sat next to each other, blushing, lost in thought as the rest of the unit bustled around them to make the necessary changes. Soon an assistant came to drag Deepika off to change into a new costume and for her makeup to be redone. Ranveer sat there in his jacket and dhoti staring at the floor. Usually he listened to music appropriate for the scene he was doing. But for this one? He didn't think there was a more appropriate song than the one that had been composed for them, and it was already playing on speakers. 

His thoughts were in a whirl. He didn't need to make believe that she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, or that she was the most precious thing in his life. The first had always been true, and the second had stolen up on him somehow in the past six months of being with her. The only part of Sanjay sir's statement that gave him pause was the part about her belonging to him. He'd never dared to dream that, but now the idea had been planted in his mind, he had goosebumps just thinking about it. 

What would it be like, to be the person with the right to kiss her, to hold her, to stay by her side? She was, quite literally, the most amazing person he'd ever met. She brought out all that was best in him. With her he became a better version of himself. He was slightly terrified by the turn his thoughts were taking. He was thinking of her in terms of permanence and he'd never even asked her out. The one and only discussion they'd had about this had been almost six months ago, when they'd agreed to make no promises, to have no expectations from each other. 

There was no point in denying it any longer. He was most of the way in love with her, if not completely there already. He was still unsure how she felt for him. The way she blushed, the way she laughed with him, the way she spent hours talking to him to the exclusion of everyone else - these things gave him hope. But she was also reserved, she sometimes pulled away, and she was very, very busy, to the point where when they weren't shooting, he'd once gone three days without hearing her voice, and many times only received short texts from her in response to his messages. 

He heard a murmur of sound on set and looked up. She stood there in an off-white lehenga choli, her skin glowing, her face almost bare save for the kohl around her eyes, hair undone and flowing down her back. He felt as though she had taken a sledgehammer to all his carefully constructed defences and he was back to the first time he'd seen her from afar and been attacked by an unprecedented wave of carnal lust. Only this time, he had all the immense respect, regard and affection for her in addition to the pure visceral response to her beauty.