Sex comedy in B-town: Audiences ready, censors alert

New Delhi, July 23 (IANS) Sex and comedy sells well in Bollywood. And together, they can make for a hit recipe. But while audiences are ready to sample and savour the genre, sex comedies are few and far in India, given the censors' wariness of them. Hence, filmakers' are apprehensive of investing in the genre.

After experimenting with "Kyaa Kool Hai Hum" back in 2005, Ekta Kapoor is bringing the naughty flavour back with "Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum" July 27. But she faced the brunt with the film's promo itself!

The movie's theatrical trailer had to pass through cuts to make its way as a "boring" and "sanitised" version to the theatres, and Ekta was clearly upset.

"We never had issues in the film's first part. I think our society was so much cooler at that time," Ekta, who is aware her film will get an 'A' certificate, told IANS.

"I think sex comedies in India have gone through a very interesting phase of 'Delhi Belly', through a lot of humour even in 'Love Sex aur Dhokha', then we dealt with adult comedy in a very biopic kind of way in 'The Dirty Picture'. Now I think we have hit a roadblock! My film doesn't even have sexual humour. It is just an adult comedy.

In the recent past, few films like "Kya Kool...", "Masti", "Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai", "Mumbai Matinee", "No Entry" and "Mirch" touched the sex comedy territory. Sadly, not with stupendous success. But film historian S.M.M. Ausaja notes "this genre hasn't moved beyond the kitschy stuff".

"I remember Basu Chatterjee's 'Shaukeen' to be a good effort, but the same director couldn't recreate the magic with 'Gudgudee'," Ausaja told IANS.

"I feel 'Vicky Donor' was a good effort, though conventionally it wasn't a sex comedy. So I feel there is tremendous scope for sex comedies, but we need intelligent direction and good scripting so that the film escapes the B-Grade cliches and makes a mark," he added.

Ausaja doesn't blame the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC), even though it is wary of letting TV audiences watch such films before the 11 p.m. slot.

"I feel censor board is selective in its approach. The film reaching the censor board, however, is the second step, the first one being the film itself getting made in the mainstream, A-grade genre, which we don't see happening. Even the stars shy away from such films, I don't know what they fear," he said.

Well, at least actors like Riteish Deshmukh and Tusshar Kapoor definitely don't fear a thing, given the sex comedies they have featured in.

According to Tusshar, the genre has become "cool and trendy".

"Today, everybody is ready for it. They are accepting all kinds of cinema. Nobody is ashamed or embarrassed to watch a sex comedy. India has opened up and we are being very honest with the publicity of our film," t"e 35-year-old said.

In fact, Riteish believes "Kyaa Super Kool..." will get a larger audience as compared to the original 2005 film.

He said that "the audience has become receptive towards different kinds of films. At that time, the audience bank was small but now it has increased." Click the Movie button below for more info:
Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum