New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS) Sajit Warrier's directorial debut 'Fired', a horror film, has run into trouble with the censor board for the gory and steamy kissing scenes. But he is unperturbed and says he is targeting international audiences with the spooky film and that the kisses won't titillate audiences but would rather send shivers down their spine.

The film's promos hit the screens recently, but the censor board deemed it inappropriate to show explicit content that falls in the A-rated bracket on television.

'I am talking about a pure Indian horror film here for an international audience. And horror by certain standards needs to have ample amount of gore and sex,' Warrier told IANS in a telephonic interview from Mumbai.

'So it's not a lustful titillating kind of kiss that we are portraying... it's haunting. The kisses in 'Fired' for that matter will terrify audiences.

'We don't want to cut anything but we'll have to show it to the censors. I don't want a U/A certificate. We are happy with an A-certificate but with that we should not be asked for any more cuts because we are trying to reach that kind of audience,' he said.

The producers were asked to remove nude scenes and tone down the violent sequences. Despite snipping off the sensitive scenes, the promos, however, still attracted an 'A' certificate.

'The important point is that the protagonist has been shown hallucinating under the influence of anti-depressants since the beginning of the film. Hence all scenes are in the character's mind and in flashback including the love scenes.

'There is some nudity but we agreed to remove it though we might keep it for the international audience. There are also some scenes where blood has been shown but we are not showing violence here. It just plays around in his head,' said the director who has also written the script of the movie.

'Fired' is still awaiting a censor certificate and the release date hasn't been decided yet.

Produced by IDream Production, it stars Rahul Bose in the lead with British model Militza Radmilovic who is making her big-screen debut with the movie.

Based in London, the 90-minute picture is 'about a man's guilt when he realises his mistakes but by then it's too late. It's the last 90 minutes of his life' after he fires 121 employees to repair his scandal ridden work record and to cope with the global recession.

Having completed his post-graduation in direction and script writing from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Warrier became an assistant editor and visual effects supervisor for the 2003 Hollywood movie 'Coronado'.

He then joined the FOX Network in 2004 as an editor, visual effects supervisor and animator and followed it up by directing and producing commercials before graduating to feature film direction.

The debutant director is keeping his fingers crossed for his maiden project.

He is also planning to take 'Fired' across different festival circuits.

(Robin Bansal can be contacted at robin.b@ians.in)