Kissing in Hindi-Urdu cinema

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File:A Throw of Dice.jpg

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Sangam (1964): a European couple kisses in Paris

This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. You can update or correct this page, and/ or send photographs to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.

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The 1920s

Raj Kapoor kisses Ksenia Ryabinkina in Mera Naam Joker (1969)

Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia kiss in Bobby (1973)

Zeenat Aman and Shashi Kapoor kiss in Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978)

Sunny Deol and Amrita Singh kiss in Betaab ()

The screen kiss was common in silent films before it became taboo shortly after the coming of the talkies. (A still from A Throw of Dice is seen alongside.)

The 1930s

Karma (1933) featured one of India’s early onscreen kisses: legitimised only somewhat by the fact that heroine Devika Rani was kissing her real life husband, actor Himanshu Rai. At four minutes it probably remains the longest kissing scene in the history of Indian cinema. For the photograph see Indian cinema: 1930-39. At some stage in the 1930s, kissing was banned by the Indian censors.

The 1940s and 50s

Chaste films. No kisses

The 1960s

For whatever reason the censors had a soft corner for Raj Kapoor.

Sangam (1964) featured a kiss between a European couple in Paris, as Kapoor and Vyjantimala watched. This was the first kiss in an Indian film after kisses were censored out in the 1930s.

Mera Naam Joker (1969) had Raj Kapoor kissing Ksenia Ryabinkina. If kissing was banned in Indian cinema, why the exception for Kapoor?

1970-77

Once again, the only exception was for Raj Kapoor’s Bobby (1973), in which the debutant lead actors Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia kissed.

1978 onwards

In 1977 Raj Kapoor’s publicists announced that RK’s next film Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram would have cheesecake and kisses. In January 1978 it was announced that kissing would be permitted in Indian cinema, for the first time after around four decades. Cynics suggested that the rules were being changed for Kapoor.

Indeed, Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram (1978) was the first Indian film to benefit from the change of rules, with several kisses. The rest of the film industry was taken unawares. They did not have films ready with kisses. Nor did they seem very keen to show kisses in their films.

Readers are invited to send the names of early Indian (not just Hindi-Urdu) films that had kisses to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com.
All information used will be duly acknowledged. 'Early' means 1920s to the 1940s, and then between 1978 and, say, the mid-1980s for Hindi-Urdu films. Photographs would help.

Which was the first film with a kiss in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and other Indian cinemas? Indpaedia is investigating. Your inputs will help.

The 1980s onwards

Betaab (1983) had a fleeting kiss between Sunny Deol and Amrita Singh.

After that kissing became mainstream in Hindi-Urdu cinema, though reigning superstars like Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan refused to kiss onscreen, partly because superstars do not alienate family audiences.

Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram was not a flop, but not a success either, despite being the biggest commercial film of the year and despite the sex. The biggest hits after kissing was allowed (think Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! ) have all been squeaky clean.