diff --git a/rest_framework/request.py b/rest_framework/request.py
index f45a201f7..1cd919efd 100644
--- a/rest_framework/request.py
+++ b/rest_framework/request.py
@@ -385,8 +385,15 @@ class Request(object):
         # DRF uses multipart/form-data by default, which triggers an optimization
         # in the underlying django request. For more details:
         # https://github.com/django/django/blob/1.8.2/tests/requests/tests.py#L353-L372
-        self._request.body
-        data = self._request.POST
+        if api_settings.FORM_OVERRIDE_DO_PARSE:
+            self._request.body
+            data = self._request.POST
+        else:
+            self._data = self._request.POST
+            self._files = self._request.FILES
+            self._full_data = self._data.copy()
+            self._full_data.update(self._files)
+            data = self._data
 
         # Method overloading - change the method and remove the param from the content.
         if (
diff --git a/rest_framework/settings.py b/rest_framework/settings.py
index a3e9f5902..6541be267 100644
--- a/rest_framework/settings.py
+++ b/rest_framework/settings.py
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ DEFAULTS = {
     'TEST_REQUEST_DEFAULT_FORMAT': 'multipart',
 
     # Browser enhancements
+    'FORM_OVERRIDE_DO_PARSE': False,
     'FORM_METHOD_OVERRIDE': '_method',
     'FORM_CONTENT_OVERRIDE': '_content',
     'FORM_CONTENTTYPE_OVERRIDE': '_content_type',