Prem Chopra talks on warning against rape scenes in his book

• Prem Chopra appeared in hundreds of films and gained notoriety for consistently playing the bad guy.
• He was frequently spotted admiring the hero’s wife, sister, or girlfriend when they weren’t engaged in physical combat.
• Prem once claimed that no one had anything but positive things to say about his professionalism.

Throughout his career, Prem Chopra appeared in hundreds of films and gained notoriety for consistently playing the bad guy. Prem was frequently spotted admiring the hero’s wife, sister, or girlfriend when they weren’t engaged in physical combat. Prem has also shot a number of rape scenes with some of the most prominent female performers of the time, and he once claimed that no one had anything but positive things to say about his professionalism.

Chopra discussed filming rape scenes and his few negative experiences in depth in his biography Prem Naam Hai Mera by Rakita Nanda.

He described one such instance in which a leading lady declined to kiss him, saying, “There was this top heroine who was having an affair with a top hero. A shot required me to kiss her and initially she was willing. However, her lover happened to be on the sets when we were ready to shoot and he kept signalling to her not to comply. So whenever I came close to her face she would turn away. This went on, take after take, until I mock-shouted, ‘What the hell! We villains get thrown off cliffs, get shot by kids and beaten up by all the heroes. At least we should be able to enjoy small benefits.’ It made light of the moment. Finally the shot was taken and the director heaved a sigh of relief.”

Prem, however, insisted that rape was frequently not depicted in movies. Sound effects, powerful music, cutaways to a locked door or to the next instant were used to portray it. He did, however, add that the government had to step in. Because so many producers had started include gratuitous rape scenes in their movies.

“Do you think I actually like doing all these dirty things on screen? No, I do not! Violence and sex may be phases of the contemporary scene but I am totally against glorifying violence or dishing out sex as a box office booster. By the mid-1970s, film producers had already been told by the government to reduce violence and rape scenes. Even the films that were already on the floor had to conform by the new directive from the centre,” he wrote in the book.