MUMBAI: Bejoy Nambiar’s mentor Mani Ratnam has extended all his support to Bejoy. Mani saw Shaitaan and loved it. The reticent Ratnam was only embarrassed at the sequence where VJ Neil is shown masturbating on screen.

Laughs Nambiar, “It is a squirmy moment for us because we are still not used to a sexual honesty on screen and I’ve to admit the VJ Neil who is doing the masturbation is VERY VERY convincing. In any case it’s a funny scene.”

Apparently, the character’s mother barges in on the act and Neil tries to hide his shame under a CD jacket of a Zakir Husain album.

Says Nambiar, “I was only asked to beep out Zakir Saab’s name, which I did. I think we need to stop being apologetic about sexually explicit content. Given a chance I’d show a couple making out on screen. In fact, in Shaitaan there’s scene where a character saunters out in boxer shots while the girl is buttoning up inside. The time has come when the sex act and the accompanying language are not taboo on screen. Look at Ragini MMS and Aamir Khan’s Delhi Belly.”

Having said this, Nambiar stresses that Shaitan is not a sexy film. “The characters are too driven by other impulses to bother with sex. Ours is not titillating film. Ours is not a big film. We are releasing on only 600-700 screens,” he tells Businessofcinema.com.