/> Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das kissed under the mosquito net in Deepa Mehta's Fire. No one from mainstream cinema dared before or after to bring homosexual love openly out of the closet onto the screen.

In fact Rekha who was the first choice for Fire said to me, "I'd happily kiss Nandita Das a dozen times. But not THAT way."

And when Tom Hanks "dared" to play a gay HIV-positive in Philadelphia he refused to kiss his screen-lover Antonio Banderas.

Samir Soni(Raj Kumar Santoshi's discovery best- remembered as Madhuri Dixit's caddish lover in Lajja and as Amitabh Bachchan's ungrateful son in Baghban) is the first Indian actor to have played a gay character in a mainstream Hindi film.

And that isn't all. Samir Soni in Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion has actually done a passionate kissing scene with his screen lover played by a young theatre artiste named Anil Kumar.

Madhur spotted Anil in a posh party-scene for Fashion and immediately offered him the role of Samir Soni's lover. Anil accepted without hesitation and had no problems with the intimate scenes. Earlier in Page 3 Madhur had shot a love-making scene between Jai Kalra and Rehaan Engineer. But there was no kissing.

In fact gay kissing is almost non-existent in our cinema.

Laugh Samir. "Is it? Anil was more nervous than I could ever be. I wasn't nervous or anxious at all," says Samir with a laugh. "Why should I be? I think too much hoo-ha is made in our country about sexual orientation.

Isn't there enough violence and unrest being created against minority groups on the basis of religion? Do we need to get all het up about what tow grown-up up men do in privacy?"

The gay kiss in Fashion happens in the car when the dress designer Rahul Arora (Samir Soni) says bye to his lover.

"It's a very natural moment between two people in love. And I didn't have a moment's hesitation in doing it.Why should I? I don't have a girlfriend to be answerable to.

I did think, 'Oh my God, what will my parents say?' But it's not me, it's my character kissing the person he loves. More than me it was my screen-lover Ashish (that's what his name in the film is, and that's what I call him though his real name is Anil) who was trembling in fear.

I told him to chill, I was like his elder brother. I knew with Madhur at the helm it would be aesthetic. Did I feel repelled? No I was okay."

Tell him lots of Indian actors have a prpblem playing gay and Samir shrugs, "See, I feel those who are homophobic would recoil from doing a gay role. But I'm extremely confident of my sexuality and had no qualms about playing gay.

From my modeling days I've had gay friends who would discuss their boyfriends with me. So I'm very comfortable with homosexuality. I think we need to get over our prudery about these things.

And archaic laws are only making things worse for gay people. They're either hiding or defiantly flaunting their homosexuality in their clothes and body language."

The revolutionary scene was dropped from the film before it went to the censors. But now Madhur Bhandarkar is having second thoughts.

Says Madhur, "What a beautifully-shot scene of intimacy it is between Samir and Anil. You forget their gender. They're just two people in love expressing their feelings.

I took it out before taking it to the censor board. I thought portraying a homosexual couple was bold enough. The kiss would have been too much. But now I'm planning to restore it in the DVD."

"Scrap Outdated Laws On Homosexuality": Says Samir.

"I am not very qualified to speak on the current controversy over the constutitional rights of homosexuals. But I do know every individual has the right to choose whom he or she wants to be with. I'm heterosexual. But I respect my gay friends and their right to live life the way they want. Playing a homosexual in Fashion I realized love has no gender."