When Ramayan’s Arvind Trivedi put ‘full stop’ on proposal to show soft porn in theatres, said kissing was ‘unacceptable’

Late actor Arvind Trivedi, who famously played Raavan on Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan, also served as the acting chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification from 2002 to 2003. He took the role on with clear-minded ideas, and a defiance of what his predecessor, Vijay Anand, had controversially proposed. 

Vijay Anand had been advocating for a dialogue on soft porn films to be shown in theatres, which Arvind Trivedi was staunchly against. Vijay Anand resigned after the CBFC refused to discuss the proposals. 

“I want to put a full stop to what he stood for. He wanted soft-porn films to be shown in special theatres. Public entertainment has to be healthy and that simply wasn’t,” Arvind told India Today in 2003.

But a 2002 interview with The Tribune suggested that he wasn’t merely against porn to be commercially screened, but also sexuality of any kind. He said, “I am not against kissing if it is necessary. Kissing could be deemed necessary in scenes between a mother-daughter or brother-sister. But scenes of closeness or expressions of love between a woman and man would be unacceptable, as the moral boundaries imposed by society must be respected.”

Arvind Trivedi died on Tuesday evening following a heart attack. He was in his early 80s. According to the actor’s nephew, Kaustubh Trivedi, the actor had been unwell for a long time and breathed his last around 10 pm at his residence in suburban Kandivali. “He had a lot of age related health issues and was not keeping well. He was in the hospital earlier and had come home only recently. He died of a heart attack at his residence around 10-10.30 pm,” Kaustubh told PTI.

Also read: Ramayan: Raavan actor Arvind Trivedi originally turned down role, but Paresh Rawal convinced him to change his mind

Dipika Chikhalia and Sunil Lahri were among his old Ramayan co-stars to pay tribute. Current CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also sent in condolences.