Fenil and Bollywood: Move over Emraan Hashmi; Bollywood is full of serial kissers now

Renuka Vyavahare (BOMBAY TIMES; May 14, 2014)

For B-Town’s Gen-Next, kissing on screen is no big deal. They refuse to buy the hype surrounding the ‘chumma’.

TOO MANY SERIAL KISSERS
Till a few years ago, the term was coined and used exclusively for Emraan Hashmi. In an interview, Mallika Sherawat had even pointed out how she was the first Bollywood actress to kiss on screen without any inhibitions. If you recall, she kissed 17 times in a film called Khwahish. Cut to today, when the younger crop of actors do not consider the ‘kiss’ a matter worthy of discussion. They don’t bat an eyelid or pucker their lips when probed about their multiple kisses, quite often in a single film.

KISS UNINTERRUPTED
We remember asking Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone about their multiple kisses and the sexual tension between their characters in Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-leela. Ranveer had said, “I remember when we were shooting for the kissing scene, something happened and we were to react to it and snap out of the kiss. One time, however, I did not react. Sir (Bhansali) screamed, ‘Reaction de re!’ I was kind of lost in the moment. When you really feel it, these things can happen. Bhansali created a world where the people are very raw and passionate. And I am only too happy that I got a wonderful, professional co-star who doesn’t have hangups. It can get very difficult to do such scenes with somebody who’s cagey.”

GENDER NO BAR
Sidharth Malhotra, who had kissed Alia Bhatt in Student Of The Year and Parineeti Chopra in Hasee Toh Phasee, will now be seen locking lips with Shraddha Kapoor in his forthcoming film Ek Villain. Sid had once told us that he could even kiss a guy if the script demanded it. “But I don’t think we can pull it off in Indian cinema as yet. Locking lips with a girl has just started. Brokeback (Mountain) in India will take a while. It depends on the director, script and why not? An actor needs to do what the director says. If I am into the script, why not?” he had said.

THE BEST KISSER?
Be it Arjun Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput or Sidharth, Parineeti has also had her share of kisses. When asked who the best kisser is, Pari complimented all three saying, “All I will say is, all three of them were very gentlemanly about it.”

Arjun, on the contrary, was vocal about how among the girls he has kissed (on screen), Alia was the best. He told us, “I really like kissing Alia, she is the best. It would be unfair to compare, but yeah, she is very good. Also, in Ishaqzaade (with Parineeti), it was my first kiss. I was a bit nervous then.”

Confirming how shooting a kissing scene is just another day at work, Alia said, “It’s not that we go around the set thinking, ‘Oh, today we are going to kiss, so let’s enjoy’. It’s not that. It’s acting. If it’s important for the script, so be it.”

Note: Quotes of the actors are excerpts from previous interactions with Bombay Times.