What’s the right length?: Shabana Azmi on ‘Spectre’ kissing scenes

“Just two days ago, very honourable chief of the board of film certification has arbitrary… without any consultation with the board members, has edited a kiss in James Bond film from its actual length to half a length,” Shabana said whe asked about the status of censorship in India at the “Women In The World” summit here.

“He thinks 50 seconds is enough to watch a kissing scene. I don’t understand? What is the right length?,” Shabana said amid laughter while addressing a session on her 1996 film “Fire”.

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The National-award winning actress, however, praised the board when it passed “Fire”, a film which boldly chronicled the same sex relationship, without a single cut.

“What was absolutely stunning about the board of members of film certification of that time was it didn’t have a single cut… After that it was pulled out of the theatres and ministry re-referred the board and the commendable part was they re-released it without a single cut.”

“Fire” was an Indian-Canadian romantic drama film written and directed by Deepa Mehta and starred Azmi and Nandita Das.

It was the first installment of Mehta’s elements trilogy; it is succeeded by “Earth” (1998) and “Water” (2005).