A Sharadhaa By

QUEEN'S ROAD: Karnataka’s regional censor head M Nagendra Swamy is concerned that the Censor Board may be misunderstood through all the brouhaha over the kissing scene in Spectre. He said the rules do not ban showing sex or kissing in movies.

Pahlaj Nihalani, the present chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, is currently in the spotlight for trying to ‘Indianise’ Spectre by cutting the kissing scene shorter by 10 seconds.

He made headlines with his statement, ‘Do you want to have sex with your doors open?’.

“A kiss is a kiss,” said Swamy. “When the Censor Board wanted to cut it, why did it allow the 10 seconds of it? They should have either let it run or cut it out entirely. By doing this, we are violating our own guidelines. The Board’s reputation should not be tarnished because someone wasn’t too sure of the rules.”

The regional Censor Board officer said when it comes to movies, it is left to the director to tell a story in a way he or she sees fit.

“I don’t want to directly comment on another official’s opinion. But I read the headlines that said ‘do you want to have sex with the doors open?’ and I wanted to say that we see people making out in the parks all the time,” he said.

“We cut such scenes only if it is not required in the story. It is the prerogative of the director and if he wants to show sex with doors open, it is fine,” he said.

In fact, Nagendra Swamy said that the producers in Karnataka need to be bolder. They can shoot an explicit scene tastefully and he would allow it.

“But here, no filmmakers are ready to be bold. Our Censor Board is so liberal that if any kissing scene is done aesthetically, I will clear it with a ‘U’ certificate, provided it is within a context,” he said.

Nagendra Swamy further said, “The Censor Board has around 25 guidelines and they are mostly related to vulgarity, crime, violence and portraying women in a bad light. Most of the rules are related to defamation, caste, national interest and similar concerns. Whatever is done should be based on the context and required for the story. Men and women kissing has been happening for ages. We don’t have a problem with it.”