Less kissing, no swearing: James Bond gets a ‘sanskari’ makeover

The latest James Bond flick Spectre has got a ‘sanskari’ makeover ahead of its release in India with the censor board chopping the kissing scenes by half, reports said Wednesday.

The movie, starring Daniel Craig in the title role, suffered four cuts --two verbal, two visual --before it was given a U/A certificate by the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC), Rediff reported.

The report said that the censors cut down Bond’s success rate with the ladies. Craig’s passionate kisses with his co-stars were reduced by as much as 50%.

“The Censor Board had nothing against James Bond kissing, but the length of the kisses were found to be excessive,” a source said.

The two audio cuts were abuses, one of them, invariably, the F-word.

Chief censor Pahlaj Nihalani was quoted by NDTV as saying that he had nothing to do with the edits. The film will be released in theatres across the country on Friday.

Immediately after the news was out, the hashtag #SanskariJamesBond trended on Twitter with people going ballistic over Bond’s conservative makeover.

For many it brought back memories of Bollywood films of the 1970s when visuals of flowers and bees filled in for kissing scenes.

Others conjured images of a desi Bond clad in a black dhoti, eating Patanjali noodles and drinking his favourite lassi. Shaken, not stirred.