Ram’s Kisses make mark Bollywood(+video)

Kisses make their mark in Bollywood

Meena Iyer

Times New York

Mumbai: Aditya Chopra's Salaam Namaste has three kisses sizzling up the screen, while his next offering, Neal And Nicky, is rumoured to have an incredible 18. Hum Tum, another Yash Raj Productions flick, had Rani Mukherjee rub lips with Saif Ali Khan—she's also smooched Amitabh Bachchan in Black and Abhishek Bachchan in Bunty Aur Babli. Mallika Sherawat kissed 17 times in Khwaish and six times in Bach Ke Rehna Re Baba, while her Murder co-star Emraan Hashmi has earned the sobriquet of 'kissing king' after smooching his co-stars in Murder, Zehar and Aashiq Banaya Aapne. Evidently, liplock is Bollywood's favourite pose these days.
Real kissing began to replace the absurd stock shots of flowers brushing coyly against each other almost 15 years ago. Aamir Khan kissed Karisma Kapoor in Raja Hindustani, Kamal Haasan kissed Rani Mukherjee in Hey Ram, John Abraham kissed Bipasha Basu in Jism, Fardeen Khan kissed Kareena Kapoor in Dev and so on. However, even until two years ago, a kiss in Bollywood movies was still treated like an aberration.
   
"But now it seems like the most normal thing to do on screen,'' says Ruchi Narain, who's Kal—Yesterday and Tomorrow has Chitrangada Singh and Ram Kapoor locking lips.
   
Narain explains that Kal is a mature film and it would seem absurd if her lead players were shown being intimate and still not exchanging a kiss. "In fact, there was a slight awkwardness because Chitrangada and Ram are married (to other people) in real life,'' she says. "And they were a wee bit hesitant about kissing on screen. However, they are professionals...and realised that it was essential to the script."

Uday Chopra, lead star of Neal And Nicky, confirms that "there are a few kisses in the film but whoever came up with the ridiculous number 18 needs to have his head examined''. But reports do say that Ayesha Takia, who was first offered Tanisha's role, backed out because she didn't want to smooch. And definitely not a dozen times. Sighs Chopra, "I honestly don't understand why people are making such a hue and cry about a few innocent kisses. Don't people kiss in real life?''
   
Is the kiss here to stay? Kunal Kohli, director of Hum Tum, feels it definitely is. "In Hum Tum and Salaam Namaste, the kissing conveys genuine affection,'' he says. "It wasn't advertised to attract publicity. Nor is it a titillating gimmick. Bollywood is now making progressive cinema and whether it's a kiss or a love-making scene, the whole process has evolved. That's why people don't even discuss it anymore. It's depicted as naturally as anything else.''
   
Saif Ali Khan is another votary. "A love story without a kiss is like an action film without a punch,'' he dimples. "It's time we grew up. A kiss is definitely far superior to some of the double-meaning dialogue our films have.''

However, not everyone is as gungho. Bollywood dream lover Shah Rukh Khan will never consider kissing on screen, no matter what, while Rani Mukherjee, after totting up quite a kissing record, is positive she will never do it again (trade whispers say she walked out of Vishal Bharadwaj's Mr Singh and Mrs Mehta because the film has some intimate scenes).
   
Even the pin-up types seem unsure while Mallika Sherawat is reportedly going to restrict her kissing scenes to her international films, Bipasha Basu believes that although it's now natural to see a kiss in a Hindi film, the mind block still exists for most actors. "I kissed John in Jism but I'm not sure whether I'll be comfortable kissing any of my other co-stars,'' she says. Of course, she and a lot of other heroines also say they will actually cross the bridge when they come to it.

WATCH THE FAMOUS KISS mentioned in the article

This is the trailer for the movie KAL...apparently the kiss was monumental enough to include in the trailer

http://www.indiafm.com/movies/trailers/7281/index.html

. You need real player for above and it;s a download link the top link you have to unzipp...and this on is unzipped. Ram is the narrator.

kal1.rm - 4.00MB

Article link......

http://movies.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1232916,curpg- 2.cms

Sorry I apologize in advance, if it's a repeat......