Who is Bollywood's serial kisser? How about Bollywood's kissing queen? In an industry where some still consider kissing taboo, several actors are pushing the boundaries.
It may be odd to American audiences who are used to a highly sexualized Hollywood — where the typical PG-13 rom com shows a whole lot more than kissing — but some Bollywood conservatives still consider on-screen liplock taboo.
How taboo is it? So taboo that fairly recently, you could be charged with criminal obscenity for kissing on-screen or in public.
In 2006, a lawyer filed an obscenity case against Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan for their (very brief) on-screen kiss in "Dhoom 2." The lawyer filed it under the charges of "vulgarity" and "derogatory to women" in India's penal code. The case was eventually thrown out, but it caused a stir (especially given that Rai shortly thereafter married Abhishek Bachchan, another co-star of the film) and was still talked about in 2010 when Rai and Roshan did another film together. And then there was the Hollywood-meets-Bollywood incident with Richard Gere in 2007. After Gere playfully hugged and kissed Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty onstage at an AIDS fundraising event, an Indian judge issued a warrant for his arrest on obscenity charges. The country's Supreme Court later suspended the warrant, but the incident set off effigy-burning protests in India. (Although note that in early 2009, the Delhi high court threw out a case where police arrested and charged with obscenity a young married couple who kissed in public.)
Given such unpleasant reactions from some departments, many old-school — not necessarily out-of-date, but more traditional — Bollywood actors avoid liplock. They certainly have ways of making innuendos and dancing around the issues - with item songs like I've been talking about or numbers like the blatantly sensual "Suraj Hua Maddham" from "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham" [Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sorrow] — but actual liplock from more traditional actors is still rare. Historically, some exceptions have arisen to the no-kissing rule — consider married couple Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani's four-minute kiss in 1933's "Karma," still the longest kiss in Bollywood — but the backlash these have drawn have enforced the presence of the taboo.
Many anti-kissing actors and filmmakers argue there's more to the lack of kissing than the historical taboo and obscenity charges: They simply don't need kissing. The aesthetic of Hindi film has a couple's falling in love shown through song, not the kiss that represents the same for Western filmmakers. (Having taken a class on the early history of film, I can point out Americans have been kissing on-screen since 1896's "The Kiss" and that the West has been widely accepting on-screen kisses since 1899's British film "A Kiss in the Tunnel.") In fact, many argue that Bollywood's growing acceptance of on-screen kissing is a product of Westernization.
Still, many other actors have made names for themselves in recent years as unabashed kissers.
Among male actors, Emraan Hashmi is the one most often associated with the "serial kisser" title, but that has been disputed. This summer, a writer at Glamsham pointed out that Aamir Khan has been kissing in films since his debut in 1988's "Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak" [From One Calamity to the Next]. More recently, a writer pointed out that Ranbir Kapoor - who has also been called a somewhat playboy - is also quickly becoming a serial kisser. Hrithik Roshan has also been fairly consistent with liplock from his debut in "Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai" [Say You Love Me], which featured a quick peck. Imran Khan (Aamir's nephew) has also been a consistent kisser.
Bollywood's kissing queen title has most often been bestowed on Mallika Sherawat — whose starring debut "Khwahish" [Desire] was considered quite racy — but others have challenged that as well. Some have called Kareena Kapoor by the same title. Others have speculated that Anushka Sharma — younger in years and film experience — may take the crown.
Whoever takes the "serial kisser" or "kissing queen" title, it's worth pointing out that the consistent kissers are well-known, reinforcing the idea that "normal" is not to kiss.
In other news, it looks like my previous cynicism was unfounded because "Ra.One" — which was locked in a copyright scandal last week — will be playing here in Gainesville. The Regal Gainesville Cinema Stadium 14 (better known as the theater in Butler Plaza) will be playing "Ra.One" in both 3-D and 2-D starting Wednesday. I encourage you to go out and support foreign film in Gainesville, and expect a review on this blog on opening day.
For more on Bollywood, follow @nercabeyul on Twitter.
Posts in The Filmi Gator appear on Mondays.
