Here’s how kissing scenes evolved over the decades in Bollywood. 💋
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00:00Once upon a time, intimate scenes in Indian cinema looked something like this.
00:04And 70 years later, Imran Hashmi entered the chart.
00:08So how did we get here?
00:16Let's take a trip back in time when Indian cinema's first kiss
00:20appeared in a silent film called A Throw of Dice.
00:23It was made by German director Franz Osten and was based on a chapter from the Mahabharata.
00:28The story was about two kings gambling to marry a commoner.
00:31The black and white kissing scene featured Sita Devi who played a village girl
00:36and Charu Roy who portrayed the role of the king.
00:43The 1933 film Karma was made for an international audience.
00:47It supposedly featured a long kissing scene between actors Devika and Himanshu Roy
00:52who were married in real life.
00:54The movie was shot by a crew from India, Germany and the UK
00:58and was released in London first before its debut in India.
01:02But the movie failed at the box office.
01:08Public displays of affection were not common on or off screen.
01:12After independence, India set up a film advisory board and adopted strict guidelines.
01:18Since depicting intimacy on screen was not an option,
01:21filmmakers sought creative alternatives.
01:24And thus the era of using flowers and birds as symbols for kissing and sex began.
01:29Some directors also relied on elements such as water and fire
01:33to depict carnal emotions and desires.
01:40After superstar Raj Kapoor took up direction,
01:43many of his films showed couples kissing.
01:45Experts later credited him for his bold choices
01:48and the way he bypassed state censorship.
01:55This coming-of-age era saw many top actors including Aamir Khan,
01:59Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor among others locking lips on the big screen.
02:04It was a bold new era for Indian cinema.
02:13The 2004 film Murder was a pathbreaker.
02:20Actors Imran Hashmi and Mallika Shiravach shared a no-holes-barred sexual chemistry.
02:26The same year, Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan's passionate kissing scene in Dhoom 2
02:31resulted in multiple legal notices handed to the actors.
02:35Several films once banned by the Indian Censor Board found a new life on OTT platforms.
02:45Filmmakers displayed bold new narratives and plenty of intimacy on-screen followed.
02:50Some film sets were also equipped with intimacy coordinators
02:54that helped make shoots safer for actors.
02:57However, uproar over kissing scenes still continued.
03:01In 2024, a kissing scene between actors Deepika Padukone and Hrithik Roshan in the film Fighter
03:07led to a legal notice.
03:08The film was accused of disrespecting the Indian Air Force uniform.