Small-time actresses and models that came to Mumbai with big dreams, landed up doing porn shoots and films for various web portals during the lockdown. The private bungalows on the outskirts of Mumbai are the prime locations for shooting such movies.
Sana Shah a struggling model from Gujarat told Afternoon Voice, “Money is certainly relevant for models like us to survive in Mumbai. From paying rent to getting groomed everything needs money, we are left with no option. The film industry extras have a poor reputation, there is no work right now, and wherever we approach with a portfolio they offer us some C-grade movie or porn film. We have no choice”.
Sara Morales says, “It is not very difficult to get into this porn industry; there are always ads on social media for example looking for girls to participate in adult movies. That is how I landed my first porn movies recently. The pay is fine and it gives you a taste of what it is like. Once you get to know a few people it gets easier and I have done several such movies already.”
Nagma, one such victim says “The porn industry has a habit of swallowing a girl’s whole and spitting them out the other side, and often they can have had a pretty shitty experience with the whole thing. If you want to get the roles and stay relevant in porn, often you have to do things that you wouldn’t usually. These roles generally pay higher, but sometimes, there are so many girls going for roles in standard hetero porn, that you have to think and work outside of the box. This industry is huge and hardly anyone gets caught”.
Mumbai Police had raided a bungalow in the Madh area of Malad last week on Friday, where a porn movie was being shot. On Wednesday the police have arrested one more person, who directed nude films for OTT platforms, in connection with a pornographic films racket busted recently. With this the total number of those held in the case so far to nine, including an actress.
According to a crime branch officer earlier, after arresting five accused in this racket, another woman who was forced to act in the porn films approached Malwani police station with a complaint. Subsequently, the second FIR was registered against three persons, including Khan, her husband, and another accused.
Police initially arrested five persons in the case, including Khan who is alleged to be the producer and director of the film. Based on the interrogation of the five arrested persons, police had arrested actress Gehna Vasisht and Umesh Kamat, the representative of a UK-based production house, who was alleged to have uploaded some of the porn videos sent to him by Vasisht. Police registered the second FIR after another woman alleged that she was forced to act in porn films.
The second FIR was registered at Malwani police station against three persons, including Yasmin Khan, who was previously arrested following the registration of the first FIR by the Mumbai Crime Branch, her husband, and another accused. As part of its investigation in the first FIR, Mumbai Police arrested one Dipankar Khasanvis alias Shyam Banarjee (36) on Tuesday, who is Khan’s husband. With the fresh arrest on Tuesday, the total number of arrests in the case has reached eight. As per police, Khasanvis, too, was part of the company that ran the application on which obscene and pornographic content was allegedly being broadcast. The officer said that Khasanvis was also involved in the shooting of the content.