India’s First Film To Show Kissing Scene Was ‘Bilat Ferat’

A few decades back, a kiss scene in Indian cinema created a hullabaloo! The film was the first one to show kissing scenes. With changing films, things have changed. Now, depicting intimate or erotic kissing scenes on screen is no big deal for the Indian audience.  

Readers might be shocked to know Indian filmmakers have used kiss scenes since the silent era. Bilat Ferat, a 1921 Bengali silent film, was the first to show one, ‘Bilat Ferat’ means ‘Foreign Returned.’ The film depicted a foreign-returned Indian. Being London returned, he was modern and adopted an English lifestyle. Thus, director Dhirendra Nath Ganguly used intimate kissing scenes between himself (the hero) and heroine Manmatha Pal, mirroring English films.   

Bilat Ferat and Pati Bhakti

After Bilat Ferat, the second film to portray a kiss on the silver screen was Pati Bhakti (1922). TJJ Madan directed the film, featuring a passionate kiss by actress Lalita Pawar. She later became famous as the ‘Cruel Mother-In-Law’ in the films of ’60s and ’70s in films such as Sau Din Saas Ke, Dahej, Khaandan, etc

In 1929, the bold and beautiful Devika Rani became a sensation for her bewitching beauty and daring ‘hot’ scenes. In the Silent film A Throw Of Dice (1929), Devika Rani had an intimate kiss scene with actor Himanshu Rai.

Devika Rani’s Bold Scenes

Later, in the year 1933, Devika Rani created sensational by performing a lip-lock scene with her real-life husband Himanshu Rai in the film Karma (1933). The highlight of the scene is that the kiss was so passionate that the couple is locked in lip-lock for 4 minutes! Thus becoming the longest onscreen kiss to date!

The same year in 1933, down South Indian cinema Malayalam filmmakers P. V. Rao depicted a kiss scene in the Malayalam film Marthanda Varma (1933) which is regarded as the first kiss in South Indian films.

Over two decades later, film director Biren Nag dared to depict a romantic kiss scene between Waheeda Rehman and the Biswajeet in the movie Kohra (1964). In  the 70’s Raj Kapoor opened the doors of the kiss with Bobby (1973) and Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978).