Catch the Saif Ali Khan-Deepika Padukone kiss in their forthcoming film, Love Aaj Kal; (below) Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori will be setting the screen on fire in the soon-to-be-released Kites

Hrithik Roshan has gone all the way. After courting controversy in 2006 for pecking Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Dhoom 2, he’s doing it again with Mexican actress Barbara Mori in his soon-to-be-released romantic film, Kites.

But what the heck! Hrithik isn’t the only one who’s doing it. There are other actors who are making sure that their on-screen chemistry yields better results at the box office.

What about the size-zero Kareena Kapoor who’s not new to doing bold scenes in Hindi films? Remember her lip-lock with Fardeen Khan in Govind Nihalani’s Dev (2004) or her hot bikini look in Tashan (2008)? This time too she has thrown caution to the winds and will soon be seen smooching Akshay Kumar in her forthcoming film, Kambhakkt Ishq.

And if Bebo can do it with flair, can her beau, Saif Ali Khan, be far behind? In his forthcoming film, Love Aaj Kal, Saif has left no stone unturned also because it happens to be his maiden production. The romantic comedy has Saif and Deepika Padukone engaging in one hot lip-lock.

Bollywood has finally come out of the closet, making way for bolder themes, steamy scenes and celluloid osculation like never before. Be it the sizzling scenes between Hrithik and Barbara in Kites or the delightfully romantic Saif and Deepika in Love Aaj Kal or the smoochathon between Shahid Kapur and Priyanka Chopra in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminay — most upcoming movies of the year are pushing the envelope of bold Bollywood.

So is the trend here to stay? Director Ketan Mehta who is a strong votary of this trend says: “Since today’s happening crowd survives on the Internet and satellite communications and is familiar with international cinema, the concept of bold Bollywood will not take them by surprise.”

Mehta’s latest film, Rang Rasiya, (releasing end-August) has quite a few intimate scenes with Randeep Hooda and Nandana Sen in which Hooda is playing painter Raja Ravi Varma with Sen as his muse.

According to many directors, Bollywood’s art of osculation and steamy scenes shouldn’t be viewed as a big deal. Filmmaker Anurag Basu, who’s ready with his next release, Kites, rationalises: “Even Devika Rani had a torrid kissing scene with Himanshu Rai way back in the 1930s. In today’s age we cannot show flowers brushing against each other to depict intimacy.”

And it’s not the first time that Basu has pulled off such a feat. Not too long ago he directed Murder with Emraan Hashmi and Mallika Sherawat who scorched the box office with their on-screen smooches.

Neil Nitin Mukesh has dropped his pants in his upcoming movie, Jail; (below) look out for Kareena Kapoor’s lip-lock with Akshay Kumar in Kambhakkt Ishq

Priyanka’s smouldering act with Shahid in Kaminay is another one to watch. The grapevine is in high excitement over a kissing scene also because the two were romantically linked in the recent past.

So has New Age Bollywood finally lost its virginity? Director Anurag Kashyap who gave his interpretation on love and lust earlier this year in his last film, Dev.D, also feels that it’s time we show real cinema. “How long can we make the actors dance around trees?” he asks.

In Dev.D, Kashyap went beyond formulaic filmmaking and gave his contemporary take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic, Devdas. He dealt with bold themes deftly — for instance Paro’s sexual adventurism with Dev, Chanda indulging in phone sex and the portrayal of seedy drug dens in Delhi’s Paharganj area.

The actors have their own explanations too. Actress Kalki Koechlin who played Chanda in Dev.D says that candyfloss romantic films are not for her. “When we are talking about a radical change in Bollywood we should push boundaries and show real life situations. By doing it many of them end up showing unnecessary skin. The bold scenes should be justified and must be required by the script. Thereafter, the filmmaker should experiment with cinematography and the dialogues,” she says.

Meanwhile, actor Saif Ali Khan too says he was comfortable kissing his co-star Deepika Padukone in Love Aaj Kal. So, is Kareena feeling insecure about this? “Not at all,” he says. “We are all actors and we have taken care that there isn’t anything that will make us squirm while watching the scene.”

Deepika on the other hand is amused about all the brouhaha about the lip-lock. She says: “To you it looks like kissing, but actually it’s a bit of cheating with clever camerawork.”

The men too are more than willing to shed their inhibitions. So if Tarun Mansukhani’s Dostana, had John Abraham in his bitsy trunks, Ranbir Kapoor too dropped his towel for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya in 2007. Now Neil Nitin Mukesh will be dropping his pants in Madhur Bhandarkar’s upcoming, Jail, where he plays a convict.

Explains Bhandarkar: “Neil knows the kind of cinema I make and he performed the scene like a true professional.” Of course, he points out that he had to be careful about camera angles while filming that scene.

So now that the multiplex owners and producers have kissed and made up, it’s time to see whether some serious on-screen chemistry will set the box office on fire.