Saqib Saleem's kiss with Randeep Hooda

Mere Dad Ki Maruti actor Saqib Saleem has done what very few mainstream actors in India would dare to do. He has kissed a man! He shares a liplock with Randeep Hooda in Karan Johar’s segment in Bombay Talkies.

Saqib, who’s just two films old, admits it was a risk. “When I read the script I was very apprehensive. That my character is gay is established from the very first shot of the film.

To be honest, I wouldn’t have done the role if the director was not Karan. I knew he would handle the character and his sexuality with sensitivity. I was in safe hands.” Saqib, who is now apprehensive about how his family would react to his unconventional role, adds, “I saw the role as a challenge. Also, I liked the fact that the character was not overtly effeminate. He’s normal working-class guy. That’s how most of my gay friends are.

They’re very normal people who behave normally in real life.”

About the kiss Saqib says, “Well, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall dared to kiss in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain. I can tell you, Randeep and I were very awkward doing it.

Karan somehow got it out of us in one take. And that awkwardness was just fine because that’s how Karan wanted it to be between our characters.”

Saqib’s parents who are entrepreneurs have still not seen the film. But his girlfriend has.

“And she was just relieved that I kiss her much better than I kiss Randeep on screen.

Credit must go to Randeep for that scene. He was a thorough professional. I just followed Karan and Randeep’s cues and got over the kiss in one take,” says Saqib.

Incidentally, Randeep had refused to play a gay character in Mira Nair’s The Migration  short-film on AIDS. Irrfan Khan had played the role.