Rahul Bose’s gay kiss in Onir’s film ‘I Am’

In a display of professionalism, when actor Arjun Mathur agreed to kiss Rahul Bose in front of camera for Onir’s I Am, he knew that the onscreen liplock will get him noticed.

The mini film ‘Omar’ in I Am spotlights police exploitation of gay men. Arjun plays a sex worker and the director couldn’t do away with the physical aspect. However, it was the boldness of the role that attracted Arjun. As for Rahul, don’t we know he likes to experiment! Earlier, too, he has done a gay gang-rape sequence in the 1996 film Bomgay.

“Luckily, none of my actors had any inhibitions. Rahul and Arjun did the scene which goes much beyond anything seen in Indian cinema. They behaved like thorough professionals,” director Onir is quoted as saying. Now he only hopes that the Censor Board also acts maturely and passes the film without any cuts.

The much talked about sequence has the actors making out in a public place. Abhimanyu Singh (seen in Anurag Kashyap’s Gulal) plays a homophobic cop who chances on the couple and harasses them. Onir also says, “We haven’t taken any still pictures of the kissing because we don’t want it leaked out on the net. The whole idea is to look at the question of homosexuality in a proper perspective and not to highlight any specific aspect of it.”

In fact, director Madhur Bhandarkar had also shot a gay kissing sequence in a car between Samir Soni and his lover for his award-winning film Fashion but deleted it before it went to the Censor Board.