We’re scared to talk: Shakun Batra on exploring desire in Lust Stories 3

Shakun Batra says his Lust Stories 3 segment follows a couple navigating an amicable divorce and unspoken turmoil. He describes lust as a form of communication that exposes desire, inhibition and the mystery of sexuality.

Filmmaker Shakun Batra says his Lust Stories 3 segment follows a couple navigating an amicable divorce and unspoken turmoil. He describes lust as a form of communication that exposes desire, inhibition and the mystery of sexuality.

Filmmaker Shakun Batra, who has often explored the complexities and messiness of modern relationships on screen, turns his attention to desire and the things couples leave unsaid in his segment of Netflix’s upcoming anthology Lust Stories 3. For Batra, the story offered an opportunity to explore lust not merely as physical attraction, but as another form of communication between two people when words fail them.

In an exclusive conversation with India Today, the Gehraiyaan director spoke about what Lust Stories 3 allowed him to explore. Batra said that he was particularly drawn to a relationship where what the body expresses is at odds with what the couple is willing to acknowledge. His segment of the anthology stars Ali Fazal and Radhika Madan.

“I was really interested in exploring lust when your bodies are communicating more than what you are saying to each other. The couple is going through an amicable divorce on the surface, but the turmoil hasn’t been spoken about. What they’re truly feeling hasn’t been discussed. So, lust, in that way, becomes a coping mechanism for things that are not being said,” he said.

For him, the physical intimacy between the characters also becomes a space where their carefully maintained emotional defences begin to disappear.

“I do feel that your body has its own communication, and it’s very primitive and it actually sometimes is more honest than the words you can put out. Physically, when you go that deep, you drop your guard. You can say things to each other that you otherwise wouldn’t,” Batra explained.

That loss of inhibition, he believes, can reveal aspects of a person that may otherwise remain hidden. “I do feel that about sex in general — there’s a personality within you that you may have never seen, which can come out when you go into a trance at some level. Later, you can be like, ‘Who is that person? I don’t meet that person often. Where does it come from?’”

The filmmaker also spoke about the mystery surrounding sexuality and why he believes conversations around it continue to be inhibited.

“Honestly, sexuality is a mysterious thing, and maybe that’s for the good because there is still a part of you left to discover. There are certain parts of humanity which I think should always be mysterious. People have different things that turn them on, different kinks, and I feel that’s so beautiful. We actually don’t celebrate that enough,” he said.

Lust Stories 3 brings together four filmmakers — Shakun Batra, Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao and Vishal Bhardwaj — for separate stories exploring desire, intimacy and relationships. The anthology premieres on Netflix on September 18.