Sleaze in Bollywood nothing less than a porn

By Sunil Noronha
Thursday, July 06, 2006

Nudity has long been an art form as much as it has been termed an obscene act. Painters use it as an art form. Sculptors used to use it to bring out the beauty of their art. It may be an art form to these people but to Bollywood it is a stoop down - a shame to India if that is what the industry represents. The recently happened Rahki Sawant incident was a testimony of that. There is really no need to pick out only that incident to prove my point. Rakhi Sawant like other upcoming Bollywood actresses and item girls has innumerable proof of her obscenity. The very same things that you find in a pornographic magazine are found in a very acceptable manner in which it is not labelled as pornography but is very much an abomination to the culture we are so proud of.

The trend started with Helen, which was not really about how sexy you were. Helens stylings are comparable to belly dancing in nations like Egypt and Africa. It may have been arousing but was not at all as pornographic as it has gotten these days. It could be rooted in the fact that Bollywood is edging closer to Hollywood and it's styling very consciously. Hollywood exhibits very open sexuality in their movies, which probably comes from a sex taboo free nation. Before lip-to-lip kissing became an issue to bring up in Bollywood from scratch, it was a well established in Hollywood. It is not uncommon to walk around a place in America or the UK and find people kissing each other totally unconscious of who may or may not be watching them. Lets face it-the open confrontation of sexuality is what is needed. It needs to be understood that it is not shameful to be sexually free because it indeed an integral part of everybody. And at the same time there is a limit beyond which it counts to vulgarity. There's no use denying it. The more you deny it, the more you hide it in. The more you hide it in, the more it you'd want to come clean with it. The more people see that you want to come clean with it, the more it is a taboo.

Actresses like Rakhi Sawant, Esha Deol and Neha Dhupia (in flicks like Julie) have used it as a tool to get popular before denouncing it. For that matter skin show in Bollywood is one thing that upcoming actresses have been known to tackle and not very well-more than often they succumb to doing ridiculously exposive "skin flicks", as they call it, saying that it the only way you get around to getting meatier roles. In an industry where you put forth the Indian culture, this trend is very Indian indeed!

Whatever the intention is behind this skin show- commercialism, showing the western that we are on par with them or insecurity about our sexuality- is, one thing is for sure-it does not at all exalt Indian filmmaking, Indian artistry or Indian values.