Indian Censor Board

'Indian Censor Board becomes Sanskar Board'

James Bond known for his legendary charm with the ladies, but in India, he's been forced to curb his passion in the name of viewer discretion. The new film Spectre of Bond has been cleared by India's Censor Board of Film Certification with a U/A certificate, but only after four cuts, two of which were for "unnecessary" kissing scenes between Daniel Craig and his co-stars.

According to a report, the film faced two verbal and visual cuts each. “Both of Daniel Craig’s kisses with his co-stars have been reduced by half. The censor board had nothing against James Bond kissing. But the length of the kisses were found to be unnecessarily excessive," a source was quoted as saying. The other two cuts involved bad words.

India's Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani has been embroiled in a string of controversies, including muting the word 'lesbian' from the Hindi film Dum Laga Ke Haisha and banning 50 Shades of Grey despite voluntary cuts from the distributor. More recently, he's been criticised for making a propaganda-like video on Indian PM Modi's achievements.

On Twitter, #SanskariJamesBond. is treanding after the censoring led many people to imagine a sanitised Indian version of James Bond, called the #SanskariJamesBond.