Alia Bhatt-Varun Dhawan Kiss in 'Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania' Faces Axe

Karan Johar's upcoming film "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" (HSKD) has already encountered a roadblock as a kissing scene from the film has faced objection.

The Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt starrer romantic comedy's first teaser was recently released. But the film's yet-to-be-out trailer is facing some trouble as a kissing scene between the actors was objected by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

According to a report by Mid Day, the film's first trailer, featuring the lip lock scene was presented to CBFC on Wednesday. When the board disapproved the scene, members from Johar's team questioned the decision and presented examples of recent releases, which carried the same without any restriction.

After several arguments the trailer was eventually passed but with only a long shot of the couple kissing as the closeup shots of the lip lock has been deleted from the "HSKD" trailer.

"The board was not okay with the close up shots of the kissing scene between the actors. They have, however, allowed a long shot," a source close to the censor board told the daily.

The censorship was confirmed by Dharma Productions CEO Apurva Mehta.

"Yes, the censor board has asked us to delete the kissing scene and we have done the needful respecting its concerns," Mehta stated.

The censoring of the scene is indeed surprising, since in recent times several films with kissing scenes and more exposing content have been passed on comfortably by the board, even in the trailers.

Johar's "2 States" also had several kissing scenes between lead actors Arjun Kapoor and Bhatt. And the film's official trailer had carried the lip locks, which became one of the major talking points of the film.

The source close to the censor board further informed that from now on, regional censor boards have been asked to handle such sequences like intimate scenes with sensitivity. The report went on to relate the board's new outlook with the change of the guard in the central government.

Another report had recently carried a similar complaint against the Regional Board of Film Certification. Krishna, the director of the bold film "Miss Maligne", appeared quite angry at the board's decision to limit controversial content.

"Because of Censor Board's strict rules and regulations, we are not able to do such kind of films. Then how will the market expand or the people come to theatres to watch Kannada films. If we have to compete against other language films, there has to be some exposing scenes in the film. But the Censor Board does not allow exposing scenes," the director told The Times of India.

There have been several cases where the Censor Board's objection to the content has caused hue and cry among filmmakers. One such example was when the board had objected to Vidya Balan starrer "Dirty Picture" and demanded 59 cuts on the film.

In recent times, director Anurag Kashyap has openly voiced against the board's guidelines to censor smoking scenes in the film, which he feels is a disruption of the filmmaker's creative license.