A few decades back a kiss scene in Indian cinema created a hullabaloo! The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) would either cut the kissing scenes during film censorship or would shorten the length of the scene and award an Adult Certificate to the film. However, with changing times things have changed and now depicting Intimate or erotic kissing scenes on the screen is no big deal for the Indian audience.
However, readers would be shocked to know that Indian filmmakers have employed a kiss scene in films since the silent era! The First Film to show a kissing screen on the silver screen was Bilat Ferat, a Bengali silent film released in 1921. The film title Bilat Ferat means Foreign Returned. The film depicted the story of a foreign returned Indian. Since he is London returned he is modern and adopts an English lifestyle thus like the English films, film director Dhirendra Nath Ganguly, used intimate kissing scenes between the hero Dhirendranath Ganguly and the heroine Manmatha Pal.
After Bilat Ferat, the second film to portray a kiss on the silver screen was Pati Bhakti (1922). The film was directed by JJ Madan and had a passionate kiss by actress Lalita Pawar, the same old woman who later became famous as the ‘Cruel Mother-In-Law’ in the films of ’60s and ’70s in films like Sau Din Saas Ke, Dahej, Khaandan, etc
In 1929, the bold and beautiful Devika Rani became the hot sensation for her bewitching beauty and the daring to do hot scenes. In the Silent film A Throw Of Dice (1929), Devika Rani had an intimate kiss scene with actor Himanshu Rai.
In 1933, Devika Rani created sensational by performing a lip-lock scene with her real-life husband Himanshu Rai in the film Karma (1933). The highlight of the scene is that the kiss was so passionate that the couple is locked in lip-lock for 4 minutes! Thus becoming the longest onscreen kiss to date!
The same year in 1933, down South Indian cinema Malayalam filmmakers P. V. Rao depicted a kiss scene in the Malayalam film Marthanda Varma (1933) which is regarded as the first kiss in South Indian films.
After over two decades later, film director Biren Nag dared to depict a romantic kiss scene between Waheeda Rehman and the Biswajeet in the film Kohra (1964). In 70’s Raj Kapoor opened the doors of the kiss with Bobby (1973) and Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978).
