CBFC Has Nothing to Do With the Shortened Kiss in ‘Shubh Mangal’

Here’s why ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’ co-producer Aanand L Rai decided to shorten a kissing scene from his film.

Although director RS Prasanna’s Shubh Mangal Savdhaan is based on the theme of erectile dysfunction, the film’s co-producer Aanand L Rai is determined to keep the film and its story sundar, swachh and susheel. Not a moment of suggestiveness has been allowed to creep up in the film’s playing time. In fact, so determined was Aanand to keep things clean and above-board for family audiences that he actually reduced the length of a vital lip lock between the film’s lead pair, Bhumi Pednekar and Ayushmann Khurrana.

Ayushmann Khurrana confirms that cutting down the duration of the kiss was indeed Rai’s idea.

Yes, we do have a  kiss and Aanand sir has reduced its length. We don’t want Shubh Mangal Savdhaan  to be even remotely offensive to any section of the audience. It’s a film targeted at family audiences and the kiss has been modified accordingly.

Ayushmann Khurrana, Actor

This is not the first time that a filmmaker has opted for a voluntary cut to keep the family audience happy. In Lipstick Under My Burkha for example, director Alankrita Shrivastava chose to reduce the length of a love-making scene voluntarily. In the recent A Gentleman, Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez reportedly didn’t stop kissing for a sequence even when the co-director ordered 'cut'. So the kiss was shortened on the editing table.

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