Censors interrupt the Gully Boy smooch
Gully Boy, a film by Zoya Akhtar, had to surmount a hurdle just a day before its release, on Valentine’s Day.
The film had been awarded a U/A certificate on February 8. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has snipped a 13second long smooching sequence between the lead characters, as portrayed by Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh. The reason given for the cut is that the liplock sequence was long drawn-out.
Evidently, the CBFC has virtually no memory of what is described by many as the longest-ever kiss in Hindi cinema, approximately 78 seconds, shared by the lead pair in the 1996 blockbuster ‘Raja Hindustani,’ starring Aamir Khan and Karisma Kapoor.
The film received a U certificate and was billed as a romantic family drama. But that was way back then, in the 20th century. More recently, a smooch sequence in the Ajay Devgn starrer Shivaay (2016),
made it to the screens, uninterrupted.
To get back to the kiss currently under the CBFC scanner, the trailer of Gully Boy had fans raving about the star pair’s chemistry. But the censors apparently do not want this chemistry to turn into a conflagration that will fire up impressionable minds. So what the youth brigade thronging the theatres will get to see is not a kiss, up close and personal, but a wider shot.
The sting has also been taken out of cuss words and these have been replaced with less damning expletives and the name of a popular whiskey brand, one of the film’s branding partners, too has been deleted from the credits.
The movie tells the story of a rapper from the slums who wants to become famous in the face of all odds. The story is said to have been inspired by the story of underground rappers ‘Divine’ and ‘Naezy’.
The film recently had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival and received a very favourable response. Akhtar told the news agency PTI, “It was a crazy experience. It was a 1,800-seater and the screen must have been 70-80 feet. I have never seen my film projected on such a large screen. From the beginning, they were clapping at entries, whistling through songs, gasping at things that upset them and completely silent in the serious moments. It was a very emotional moment and complete joy”.