Bond gets the snip in India over a kiss too far

Daniel Craig’s passionate scenes with Lea Seydoux and Monica Bellucci were dubbed “too excessive”, while the words f**k and a**hole have also been banned. “Other shots have also been cut along with the kissing scene”. “The censor board needs to keep in tune with modern Indian sensibilities”, said the Times of India in an editorial, calling the move “ridiculous…in this day and age”.

The new Bond movie Spectre, starring Daniel Craig, has surpassed ticket sales of the last instalment Skyfall on Tuesday, taking in more than 376 million yuan ($58.9 million) five days after its opening in the world’s second-largest film market.

The decision to snip Bond’s kissing scenes was met with derision on Indian social media, where users quickly launched a #SanskariJamesBond hashtag.

Nihalani did not respond to a CNN request for comment.

James Bond can make liberal use of his licence to kill, but if the Indian censors have their way he will have to cut back on the kissing – by exactly half. I mean come on, there is more chemistry between Bond and his favorite Aston Martin vehicle than with the Bond girl.

Giving an interview to entertainment website HitFix, 62 year old Brosnan admitted that he felt slightly let down by the 24th Bond movie. The film is set to hit the theatres in India Friday. But here is a punch to him from Indian Censors.

“Thanks to the censor board, Bond shall call M as “Babuji” and Moneypenny as “behen”, a tweet read. You can present him as Bond, James Sitaram Krishnakumar Bond, on the grounds that he’s sanskari now.

“We have to be careful with films that get U/A certificate because they can be shown on TV and to all audiences following parental guidance”.

Censors in India regularly intervene when they decide films are too steamy or offensive, prompting criticism that they are too strict and conservative. Production on Spectre was only held up for two weeks, though, as its British star was determined not to delay the film and its eventual release any more. The board rejected it on the basis that the language used in the film was inappropriate.