All aboard the 'don't miss the kiss' Bollywood bandwagon

I like to watch kissing.  It’s wonderful. Everyone has to kiss and people have to watch. I want everyone to kiss again and again and I want every actor to kiss,” says Karan Johar. 

This statement by Karan Johar tells us that filmmaking in Bollywood is changing. The taboo on kissing scenes in Bollywood is going away. Almost every second film has a kissing scene and no one seems to have a problem.

The recent release ‘2 States’ has Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt kissing during intimate scenes and both actors seemed comfortable talking about it as well.

The Mohit Suri directed film ‘Ek Villain’ has Siddharth Malhotra and Shraddha Kapoor filming a passionate kiss scene.
 “I don’t know why it’s such a big deal for two characters to kiss when they are supposed to be in love.
“We have all had intimate moments with our loved ones in personal lives and that’s what we are trying to portray. And it’s all up to the directors contrarily to what people think that actors come up with this that ‘let us do a kissing scene’.  It is not like that. It is what the director wants,” says Malhotra.

Shraddha Kapoor who has also kissed Aditya Roy Kapoor earlier in the film ‘Aashiqui 2’, also has similar thoughts.
She feels that this is clearly a part of the profession. “As you see it in the promo it was a need. Yes and it was professional. Everybody works professionally so there was I don’t think any kind of awkward moment to kiss onscreen,” says the actress.

The reason for this sea change in thinking about kissing is the younger generation from Bollywood, for whom on screen kissing is not an issue; neither for the hero nor for the heroine.

The older generation still has some qualms about filming and showing an on screen kiss.
“It is about the new generation and their new ethos. The senior actors had a problem kissing.  Now all young people kiss. If there are multiple kisses, the films tend to get a good opening. So it is all good about kissing,” chuckles Karan Johar.

Karan’s statement is also based on and supported by some of the recently released films. ‘Bewakoofiyan’ had Sonam Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana filming a kiss, and Ayushmann had kissed his co-actor in the film ‘Nautanki Saala’.

Varun Dhawan and Ileana D’Cruz , Parineeti Chopra and Sushant Singh Rajput, Rajeev Khandelwal and Teena Desae and Kangna Ranaut and Vir Das have all got on the 'don’t miss the kiss' Bollywood bandwagon.

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