‘IT’S HEALTHY TO DISCUSS ABOUT SEX WITH FAMILY’

Actor Kirti Kulhari talks about her journey towards a more liberated and empowered self in Indian family setup

Sex is not a drawing room subject for discussion while growing up in India. And Kirti Kulhari’s family was no different. The actor, in her latest web series, takes on the role of a working single mother, not afraid to explore her sexuality; and it wasn’t an easy character to say yes to, owing to her mental conditioning and the environment she grew up in .

“I come from a family where we never talked about sex. Relationships were looked down upon. While, I was given a lot of freedom in terms of what I wanted to do. [For instance] When I chose sports over studies, my father was okay with it. There were obviously things he was not okay with and neither was my mother. And I don’t blame them for that,” shares Kirti.

However now, the actor feels that sex and relationships should be subjects that parents and kids discuss openly. “It is the sign of a healthy environment to discuss what’s happening in your life; if you are dating someone or what’s going on sexually,” she adds.

Kirti says, since all this wasn’t there (growing up), it obviously affected her and she “had to learn things from my own experiences,” good and bad. And hence, being a part of this web series, which deals with everyday sexism, relationship travails and sexuality, was in a way liberating for her as a person as well as an actor. “While I have dealt with a lot of issues on my own, I pushed myself as an actor during the show. As a person now, I feel unstoppable. I have actually become liberated myself. I feel so empowered to talk about things which

I wouldn’t talk about or discuss earlier in public,” she shares.

But Kirti did have her own apprehensions about the role as she didn’t want it to turn out to be just another show with fluff and sex, and with no substance. She reveals that it was her husband, actor Saahil Sehgal, who brought her out of the misery. “I know what it takes in a country like India to do it. While people are free to judge it, we should not be in a space where we get instant gratification from titillation. That’s when my husband told me that as an actor, I needed to get out of my comfort zone,” she concludes.

Actor Kirti Kulhari played an Air Force pilot in Uri: The Surgical Strike