By Subhash K Jha
MUMBAI: To the audience’s surprise during the cascading courtship conventions in Yash Chopra’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan (JTHJ), Shah Rukh Khan asks Katrina: “If I kiss you ,will you slap me?”
Rather shocked by this volte-face by Shahrukh Khan who normally plays genteel and decorous lover-boy’s roles, one of his more fun-loving heroines at the premiere had quipped loud enough for others to hear, “She may not slap you. But Salman certain will.”
It turns out that two kisses – one furtive and one lengthy one – were shot for the film JTHJ.
That Shahrukh Khan has kissed his heroine (Katrina) for the first time in Yash Chopra’s JTHJ is by now a major talking point about the film. Because Shah Rukh has constantly listed kissing as one of the absolute no-nos of his career.
So what made him take the plunge in this case?
Well, it’s the old excuse of the script demanding it. The first kiss in a London tube-train subway was mandatory. But we hear another much lengthier kiss was shot in a verdant meadow right after SRK and Ktrina had their first kiss. But the audience finally gets to see only a brief portion of what was shot, thanks to SRK’s ‘timely’ intervention, just before the film’s release.
A very reliable source informs, “There’s a lengthy kiss between them. And everyone saw it at the premiere. But when the film was released, the kiss was cut down to a negligible few seconds of fleeting lip-rub.”
Apparently, when Shahrukh saw how torrid the second kiss had turned out he personally requested Aditya Chopra to cut it down.
Says our source, “Both Shahrukh and Katrina are totally opposed to screen kissing. But here there was a need for one in the subway when Shahrukh first confesses his love to her. Later, another far lengthier kiss was shot between the couple. It was there on the premiere night. But the kiss was seriously abbreviated on release. Both of them felt uncomfortable with it.”
