Gulshan Devaiah defends pulling Rukmini Vasanth's cheek in Kantara Chapter 1's improvised moment: Rishab Shetty laughed

Gulshan Devaiah revealed that he pulled Rukmini Vasanth's cheek in Kantara Chapter 1 during improvisation, only to be accused of doing it without consent.

In Rishab Shetty’s hit film Kantara Chapter 1, Gulshan Devaiah and Rukmini Vasanth played siblings, Prince Kulashekara and Princess Kanakavathi. One scene in the film shows Kulashekara condescendingly pulling on his sister’s cheek in a key scene. Gulshan revealed to a fan on X (formerly Twitter) that the cheek pull was improvised, only to be accused of doing it without her consent.

Rukmini Vasanth and Gulshan Devaiah played siblings in Kantara Chapter 1.

Gulshan Devaiah reveals him pulling Rukmini’s cheek was improvised

A fan posted a clip of the scene on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption ‘If I ever see Rukmini Vasanth’ written on it. Tagging Gulshan they wrote, “You're so lucky Sir @gulshandevaiah. #RukminiVasanth.” Gulshan pointed out to the X user that it was inappropriate for them to say that, while also revealing that it was improvised during rehearsals.

Adding that Rishab kept it in the film after it made him laugh, Gulshan wrote, “Cute but No please don’t!!! It’s highly inappropriate. Ps. This was unscripted. I improvised this during a rehearsal & Rishab laughed out loud. We kept it in the final take.”

Gets called out for pulling Rukmini’s cheek without consent

Some X users believed that Gulshan's improvisation meant he did it without Rukmini’s consent. A person called him out and commented, “You do know its not great to touch a woman without consent, right? Stop glorifying it as if you did something.” He replied to them that it was done with consent, writing, “We are both professional actors playing siblings in the film and of course it was done with consent.”

After more people thought the same thing, Gulshan clarified, writing, “Ok I can see how I contradict myself. I suppose most people assume “improvisation” to be spontaneous. Not the case always & certainly not in this case. I take the most pride in being a thorough professional to work with & there is always consent involved with all of my co actors regardless of the gender.”

He also intriguingly added that he learnt this the ‘hard way’ on the sets of the 2011 film Shaitan, “I did learn it the hard way though, in an incident that happened during the filming of Shaitan.” Gulshan did not elaborate on what happened there.

Kantara Chapter 1 is currently running in theatres and has grossed over ₹834.25 crore at the worldwide box office. It is also available to stream on Prime Video in all South Indian languages.