Lip lock is Tollywood's new trend

While the days of sunflowers concealing a supposedly kissing onscreen couple have been left far behind, Telugu cinema was stuck in a limbo of ‘touch-me-not’ pecks on the cheeks for years now.
But that’s until the new breed of actors and filmmakers decided to give Tollywood something that was never seen before — lip locks. So common have lip lock scenes been in Telugu movies in the last one year, that even the shock value seems to be lost.
Allu Arjun, is fast being called the “Emraan Hashmi of Tollywood” with his back- to-back lip locks in “Varudu,” “Vedam” and “Arya 2.” We hear the chances of him continuing his ‘kissathon’ are bleak in “Badrinath” since he just got hitched.
Sumanth’s kissing scene with Vimala Raman in “Raaj” was being promoted as the film’s USP. Not so surprisingly, the movie got good openings despite bad reviews, thanks to the onscreen kiss. Naga Chaitanya hit headlines last year when he kissed Samantha in “Ye Maya Chesave” and Manoj and Taapsee too steamed it up with their kissing scene in “Jhummandi Naadham.” Pawan Kalyan surprised fans with his lip lock in “Theen Maar” and Tarun is believed to have a kissing scene with Vimala Raman in upcoming film, “Chukkalanti Abbayi Chakkanaina Ammayi.” The latest to join the fray is Allari Naresh who kissed Poorna in “Seematapakayi.”
Even as speculations are on about NTR and Tamannah’s kissing scene in “Oosaravelli,” one wonders how is that there is a sudden bout of “script demands it” kisses in the film industry. Actress Bindu Madhavi, who is rumoured to share a lip lock with Nani in “Sega” says, “I don’t think Tollywood is overdoing the kissing scenes. It all depends on the script. As long as it is shot well and makes sense to the storyline, I guess it is fine.”
Actor Nikhil, who has promised his mom that he won’t be doing a kissing scene anytime soon, however, is all for this trend. “Telugu families are now watching Hollywood movies. As long as it doesn’t look sleazy and is aesthetically shot, lip locks are acceptable,” he says.
But puckering up on screen is not as easy as it might seem. On his recent onscreen kiss, actor Allari Naresh gets on the defensive. “I have always been apprehensive about lip locks as family audiences come to watch my movies. But the director insisted that the kiss was necessary. Fortunately, it was well shot, there is a thin line between vulgarity and romance. Besides, the audience now accepts such scenes if they are convincing, thanks to English films that are also being dubbed into Telugu these days. Besides, my scene in the film was more of a peck than a lip lock,” Naresh insists.
Purists (read the Censor Board) however are inevitably upset with what they call “mere publicity stunts.” P Sarath Kumar, member of the Censor Board says, “It is not part of the Telugu movie culture. Conceptualizing romance on screen is more interesting than blatant kissing. Sumanth’s “Raaj” had so many kisses that were vulgarly shot. But did the film do well? The audiences won’t enjoy movies just for such scenes. It is a bad trend.”