Is This Love??? ✔

Chapter 2

The practise reading of the script goes better than she had expected, although Sanjay does make a point of refusing to say his line whenever she somewhat slightly misquotes the script. He'll not even look at her, just continues looking at the script and says "That wasn't right." The director doesn't seem to care but Sanjay does. Luckily Shiviga knows most of her lines so it doesn't happen too often, but every time it does Shivi has to bite her tongue to prevent herself throwing insults at him.
So all-in-all, not horrible.
******
He's sitting next to Shiviga in the table read. He can smell her perfume. It's tasteful. Delectable. Incredibly inconsiderate of her to have good taste in perfume. He'll think of her whenever he smells it now.
She fumbles over her line and he calls her on it, hopeful she can't see his hand shaking under the table.
He needs this.
He needs this chance so badly, it hurts.
********
There's lots of green screen for the fight scenes that takes Shivi a while to get used to. And when she says 'get used to' she means it takes her some time to adjust to not laughing when they throw her into a crash mat.

The first time it's because it's so unexpected. She says her line, and the evil villain replies by 'whooshing' her across the set with his 'magic' - played here by wires and smoke. The sound of wires shifting comes seconds before Shivi is pulled up into the air and catapulted back into a big squishy landing pad 12 feet away. She explodes into giggles the second she realizes she hasn't broken anything.

"That was amazing!" she says, looking to the director, a middle-age serious guy, who is her family friend, called Gowtham, who, thankfully, looks amused at her wonderment, "Can we do it again?"
"Well we're going to have to - try not to look like you're enjoying yourself as you're flying to your doom, will you Shivi?" his reply is well-meaning and sweet. Probably because it's 'take one' on the first day of physical effects work so he's not sick of her yet. Shivi is very mindful that the good-naturedness will run out if she doesn't pull herself together. Which she promises to do, after this take.

Sanjay is on set as he's supposed to be fighting by her side even though the villain is - technically - his uncle (oh the angst of Jai!) and he is watching from the sidelines. Shivi is reset in position as they sort out the wires and adjust the lighting appropriately. She's still giggling when one of the makeup girls, retouches her hairline.

"What is so funny about this?" she asks with a smile whilst critically assessing Shivi's makeup.
"I'm getting paid to be thrown into a crash mat. I'm living the dream!"
She smiles and laughs with her for a moment.
Right before his Lordship of Pumpkinhead interrupts.

"Are you done?" he snaps, making the girl jump. She hurries off the sound stage and Shiviga glares at him. She wants to say something but he beats her to it.
"This isn't school, Shiviga," he mutters at her, clearly unimpressed with her giggling and, heaven forbid, having fun, "Can't you at least try to be professional?"
Shivi rolls her eyes so hard she almost has a seizure.
"Wow, lighten up!" she looks at him where he stands, make up and hair done so he appears to have walked through flames (also the villain's doing), "If you take everything so seriously you'll give yourself a hernia."
"This isn't pretending anymore Shiviga!" he exclaims quietly, being mindful not to draw any unnecessary attention to them, "This is real life."
She lets out one sharp, humorless laugh. "We're on a movie set. Pretending is literally all that happens here. Nothing about what we've done has been 'real life' since before high school. Let me have fun while I can."
The director calls for silence on set to reshoot the scene, and Shivi prepares to be flung across the stage again. She doesn't see how Sanjay takes an extra moment to settle himself.
*******
His face is thunder and he knows it. Lucky they're shooting a fight scene - at least this way he can sell it as part of his character.
Shiviga doesn't consider this real life. But that's where she's wrong - this isn't just real life, this is all there is for him.
So she better pull herself together, because he won't throw away his only shot of redeeming this family's name because the most immature girl, he had the misfortune of meeting, can't be bothered to deliver her best.
*******
Sanjay and Shiviga cross paths as he leaves makeup, his bare torso painted with fake scars, bruises and abrasions.
They barely acknowledge each other, which is just the way she likes it.
The makeup girl watches him as he leaves.
"I could do work on that body all day," she says to Shiviga with a dramatic sigh, "I only wish there was a need to paint more scars on his body"
Shiviga, ever the adult, replies with an, "Ew."
"Seriously?", she starts assembling different torture tools as Shivi sits in the chair, "Have you not noticed how beautiful that man is?"