Being nude is no more fashion in the film industry; rather it’s just a routine. The trend was started with Protima Bedi, she ran naked in 1974 for the launch of Cineblitz magazine. Those days even actresses like Zeenat Aman, Simi Garewal posed naked for films. The film industry and nudity is not new but there was limit to it and class in going bare body for lenses. Remember the Tracy Chapman song: “You got a fast car, I got a ticket to anywhere, maybe we can make a deal, maybe together we can get somewhere. You got a fast car, is it fast enough we can fly away. Protima desired something like that to fly away, to a land of hope and happiness.
Then came another generation of actress like Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Soni Razdan, the Shyam Benegal’s actresses, who striped for movie in a very classic way. Then arrived the next generation era with Madhu Sapre, Debonair magazine girls to Poonam Pandey. Nudity has become symbol of boldness and beauty. Exposing the body for film has become trend. Vulgarity has become manner. Rang Rasiya has some over the top nude scenes, where both the actors, embracing nudity have shot love-making scenes in the movie, owing to which the film had got into trouble with the censor board.
However, this is not the first time that an actor or an actress has embraced nudity on-screen, from Simi Garewal to Dimple Kapadia, yesteryear top actresses themselves have appeared naked on-screen. Earlier, when an actress used to do such roles, she would gradually disappear from the silver screen but Dimple Kapadia was one such actress who managed to sustain in spite of doing a nude scene in the movie Sagar, in which she starred along with Rishi Kapoor.
So following suit, Nandana Sen too has done nude love-making scenes in the movie, and though she was initially uncomfortable about it, after speaking to her artist parents, she went ahead and the makers too shot the scene aesthetically.
Kabir Bedi’s wife Protima Bedi, who you would also know as Pooja Bedi’s mom, stood out with her bold personality during her time. So bold was the actress that for a promotional launch of the Cine Blitz magazine, she stripped down her clothes and ran naked on the Juhu beach. Obviously, it garnered attention and the promotional launch became a huge hit.
Model Milind Soman and Madhu Sapre too rose to fame when the duo appeared naked in a Tuff shoes campaign, a sports shoe campaign in the mid-‘90s. The early 1980’s and 1990’s are the times, we remember to be very traditional and orthodox with people shunning those who exposed even a little skin but you’ll be shocked to know that many of such nude scenes were part of our early Bollywood films rather than the present ones.
Earlier, nudity was limited to woman but in the recent past even men started stripping off, Milind Soman was fresh example in my mind, then Aamir Khan for PK movie and now recently some actor called Vir Das in the new trailer of Sunny Leone’s Mastizaade, does a ‘full Monty’. The clip shows Vir Das making out with a foreign girl. When he realises that the girl has a husband too, he jumps out the window wearing nothing except for a condom!
Mastizaade is an upcoming Bollywood adult comedy film, directed by Milap Zaveri. The film stars Sunny Leone in a dual role alongside Tusshar Kapoor and Vir Das in lead roles. It just can’t get any cheesy (vulgar) than this.
Sex and nudity is a new trend that not only the films serving us, but advertisements, promotions, posters, calendars, everywhere sex has become as an object of sales and marketing. The rising levels of obscenity in the Indian films, not only pose threat to the foundation of Indian society and it’s cultural and sexual norms recognized, valued and honoured of late, but have rather already damaged it enormously, which if not taken care of imminently and that too at war footing by the society, law making and implementing wing of the state, would disrupt the Indian society forever by giving a death blow to our ageless culture and ethos by opening the floodgates of fornication. This enormity of the Indian film industry has a profound impact over the Indian society due to which it plays a substantially influencing role in shaping our national attitudes, principles, social emotions and ways of living. The ideas communicated by it, being accessible to all languages, castes, religions, and regions, imprint a vision of the Indian society which may affect societal behaviour in a variety of ways, ranging from direct expounding of a political or social dogma to the subtle shaping of thought. But the ongoing explosion of obscenity in Indian cinema and the increasing public tolerance of unwanted, unwarranted and excessive depiction of sex and obscenity in the Indian films has raised concerns over the effect of such depictions on the society in general and the Indian youth in particular. Movies as exhibited today are so vulgar and obscene, viewing of which together by a family consisting of teenagers and elders both males and females, is not possible without discomfort and embarrassment.
