Publicity stunt or moral policing

By: Faridoon Shahryar, IndiaFM

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

"Reema Sen doesn't have the body to expose so why should a non-bailable arrest warrant be issued against her," says the perky item girl Rakhi Sawant. "As for Shilpa Shetty, then I think she knows her limits and would never expose before photographers. I feel it's nothing but a publicity stunt," she says.

An advocate Dakshinamoorthy filed a petition in a local court in Madurai on February 10th this year against actresses Shilpa Shetty and Reema Sen for allegedly 'Posing in an obscene manner' in photographs published in a Tamil Tabloid. The judge ordered the actresses to be present in the court on March 10th which they didn't honour. Later, summons were published in Hindi and English Newspapers but still there was no response. Hence non-bailable warrants were issued. "The pictures will mislead youth and result in increase in violence against women," the petitioner said.

A source close to Shilpa Shetty countered the allegations by citing some 'facts': "The photographs were taken from stills of a Kannada film done by Shilpa Auto Shankar a year ago. And the pictures were published by a Tamil eveninger. The Censor Board had already passed the film and we fail to understand, what's the big deal in a photograph where she is wearing a saree and her navel is being shown! The petitioner wanted some publicity and he got the same when the TV channels gave mileage to him. It's a bad precedent that is being set for exploiting celebrities."

According to Rakhi Sawant, Reema Sen and Shilpa Shetty are not the sort of girls who should be maligned in such a manner as they are not vulgar. "If it would have been Mallika Sherawat or Neha Dhupia, then it may have been justified as they expose." The feisty skin-show girl discreetly avoided her own name. Maybe she should have a re-look at a few of her photographs or pop videos before casting aspersions at others.