Censorship should not exist in any civilised country

Writer Varun Grover, along with lyricist and actor Swanand Kirkire, talks about his first short film KISS, their bizarre experiences with the censor board and if there is even a need for censorship in art

- KARTIK BHARDWAJ

LYRICIST, stand-up comedian and screenwriter Varun Grover's first short film KISS landed on MUBI recently. The film, starring Adarsh Gouray, Swanand Kirkire, and Shubrajyoti Barat, is about a director's tussle with the members of a censor board who want to halve the duration of a kissing sequence in the film. That's not the whole problem. The issue is that each viewer's watch bears a different time stamp for the scene's duration.

KISS is a satire on censorship with a touch of sci-fi. It delves into the emotions and memories the big screen image evokes in the viewer. We talk to writer and director Varun Grover and actor, lyricist Swanand Kirkire about the ideas behind the film, their bizarre experiences with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and if there is even a need for censorship in art.

Excerpts: First films are special and important. What prompted the idea for KISS?

Varun Grover: There was a news article I read where the duration of a kissing scene in a film was asked to be halved by the censor board. It was originally for 22 seconds, they asked it to be cut down to 11.

I wondered what made them get at this number. Did they have some equipment in their bodies which concluded that at the 12th second, they started having unspoken feelings? I used this as a material for a stand-up show but I felt that there was scope to go deeper into this.