Rakul Preet Singh on Chhatriwali's aim to normalise sex education and when she thought kiss causes pregnancy | Exclusive

Rakul Preet Singh is kick starting a prolific year workwise with her first release Chhatriwali. The film sees her play a teacher who takes up the responsibility of imparting sex education in a small town. The actress, fresh off appearing in another light-hearted comedy on a supposed taboo subject (Doctor G), sat down to chat with DNA about Chhatriwali, the need for sex education through entertainment, and her own misconceptions growing up.

Rakul plays the teacher in Chhatriwali but she was on the other end of the equation too, once. “I was in my 9^th standard when we had a sex education class in school. At that time, even I was one of those kids who were giggling,” she recalls, talking about how sex education was something taboo back then too. “I was in a co-ed so I wanted to bunk that class. But now, I look back at it and wonder why it was like that. The school isn’t an actor making a film. But the educational system thought there was a need to teach this to youngsters and we found it odd because of our conditioning,” the actress adds.

Rakul feels films like Chhatriwali are important to make the conversation around sex mainstream. She adds, “We were talking about this during the trailer launch that there was this girl who thought kisses can lead to pregnancy. Even I thought for the longest time that if you kiss, you can get pregnant because nobody tells you. This girl popped a lot of contraceptives every time she kissed and it messed up her system. She had to undergo surgery. If there was awareness, it would have saved a life-altering situation. That’s what we are trying to say here.”

The film takes a light-hearted approach towards the issue but Rakul feels they have managed to strike a fine balance between humour and sensitivity. “We all had to believe in our subject. Like he said, if the scene does not have dialogue that is cringey, then I don’t have to emote anything like that. When it is written like a matter of fact, it’s simple. When the writing is real and not meant to senationalise, as an actor, I become that character who believes in the need of this conversation,” she says.

Chhatrwali, directed by Tejas Deoskar, also stars Rajesh Tailang, Sumeet Vyas, Satish Kaushik, Rakesh Bedi, Prachee Shah, and Dolly Ahluwalia. The film releases on Zee5 on January 20.