Today, kisses have become a common element of cinema. Gone are the days when the audiences used to raise eyebrows when stars smooched onscreen. Also gone are the days when smooches were substituted by pecking pigeons or fondling flowers. Today it’s more open and evident and the filmmakers want it to be that way. Is that what you call realistic cinema?
Nevertheless the kiss wasn’t always as acceptable as it is received with a casual outlook today. The kiss has created its share of controversy in Bollywood and many celebrities have become both famous and infamous for their intimate acts. We list down those kisses which resulted into huge controversies in Bollywood.
Shilpa Shetty – Richard Gere
Now this episode is one of the most recent ones. Shilpa Shetty was at a social event to preach safe sex to truck drivers in India and spreading awareness about HIV AIDS. Richard Gere who is an international ambassador for the cause joined Shilpa on the stage. Soon he publicly embraced Shilpa and also kissed her more than once as a staged act.
This didn’t go down well with Indian fundamentalists who protested against Shilpa Shetty and burned her effigies.
Padmini Kolhapure – Prince Charles
Almost 3 decades back Prince Charles of England was on an Indian tour. It was 1980 and Padmini Kolhapure was just a budding actress, young and charming. And the actress seemed to have a major crush on Prince Charming. Despite Z-grade security for Prince Charles, Padmini Kolhapure still managed to barge the guards and managed to plant a peck on the cheeks of the Prince. The kiss created quite a scandal in the era.
Shabana Azmi – Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela was on an Indian trip in 1993 and actress Shabana Azmi, who was a devoted social activist as well, kissed Nelson Mandela at a social event. The actress might have never dreamt that her small stint would land her into big trouble. She faced the wrath of the Muslim community who raised a big objection to her act.
Rakhi Sawant – Mika
This could be touted as more of a publicity stunt than anything. Rakhi Sawant was invited by Mika to his birthday party. No sooner did Mika cut the cake, he smooched Rakhi Sawant in ecstasy and the media shutterbugs went gaga over the kiss. Rakhi took this as a good opportunity to gain media attention since she knew how much furore a kiss can create in India. She went ballistic complaining about Mika’s act.
Kareena Kapoor – Shahid Kapoor
It was the time when Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor were madly in love. And their madness was captured by the paparazzi when the two lost in love and seemingly inebriated indulged in a tongue-twister in a pub. The pictures were publicly flashed on tabloid front-pages and the candid MMS became the talk of the town. Both the Kapoors claimed the video to be doctored but people didn’t buy the reasons.
Pooja Bhatt – Mahesh Bhatt
Mahesh Bhatt was supposed to be the king of controversies in the 80s and 90s. In one such scandalous act, Mahesh Bhatt shot for a magazine cover with daughter Pooja Bhatt. What’s so wrong about it, you might question. Well the father-daughter duo was indulged in a lip-to-lip kiss which was considered as quite a bold act by the duo.
The name Mallika Sherawat is synonymous to smooch. She first gained recognition as the girl who kissed costar Himanshu Malik ‘17-times’in the film Khwahish . The 17 kisses were the only memorable element about the film. Perhaps it was the first time that audiences actually sat down to count the number of kisses in a film. Post that, one question that Mallika had to face often in an interview was that ‘how many kisses does your film include?” And the actress never disappointed her audiences kissing continuously in all her films. In fact her recent film ‘ Ugly aur Pagli ’ was promoted on the kiss count with a tagline that said ‘99 slaps – 1 kiss’.
