NEW DELHI: In August, Indian-Canadian Bollywood actress Sunny Leone hit the big screen in India in what critics were calling the “raunchiest" film in the country's history. And making matters worse for the film, Jism 2, Leone's own history as a porn star in North America led to government officials demanding posters promoting the film be taken down over their content. The film, expectantly, is raising numerous concerns in India, where conservatism remains strong, especially on sexual matters. Leone, Canadian born to Indian parents, is to portray a porn star in the film and has already seen officials condemn it over its “provocative" posters and content. The mayor of Mumbai Sunil Prabhu ordered the removal of the film's posters from public buses in India's entertainment capital after a local legislator complained the image used was “obscene," the Press Trust of India reported. The advertisement shows a naked woman reclining suggestively under a sheer, wet sheet, although the model is not 31-year-old Leone, who has no previous experience of mainstream cinema or theater. Before the film went public, protesters in northwest Amritsar burned an effigy of Leone in anger at the film's alleged vulgarity, while a resident of the holy city of Varanasi has reportedly asked a court to put a stay order on the film. Leone told entertainment channel Star World that she had had to adapt to the demands of mainstream cinema and its more sophisticated choreography, particularly for love scenes. “It was so complicated. In my world, it's turn the camera on and go," she was reported to have said. Adding to the ongoing controversy facing Indian women in Bollywood, Sherlyn Chopra's cover shoot with American adult magazine Playboy went on stands this month, again highlighting the use of women's bodies in the country. For many, including book sellers in the Indian capital, Chopra is a huge pull, with expectations that her cover shoot for Playboy will bring in the rupees. “These magazines are usually gone within the first few hours when we them out," the shopkeeper told Bikyamasr.com. “It is crazy on the days they are released. Men just grab them and start flipping through." For this man, who says the bulk of his earnings come from magazines that sell sex and nudity, the upcoming Playboy magazine – although officially banned in India – will feature the first Indian on the cover, Sherlyn Chopra, is certain to be a massive hit. “We are looking to have twice as many, but that is if we can get them," he said. With Indian women's rights activists lamenting the sexualization of women in the country, they fear the backlash from Chopra's nude shoot with the American adult magazine. Although they grant Chopra the right to do what she wants with her body, show it off to whomever, including the world, they argue it could be a negative for the country, hit by a massive number of sexual violence toward women in recent months. Chopra released the photos in a series of tweets on her personal Twitter account last month. They were nude photos and almost immediately went viral across India, with men and women wanting a glimpse of their first cover girl. The nude shoot has sparked anger among women's rights advocates in the country, saying that India has already “sexualized" women and the nude shoot will only “heighten the stereotypes." Sunita Gudnanti, a social worker who works with battered women in Delhi, told Bikyamasr.com that she is disappointed in Chopra's decision to do the photo shoot. “I have heard so many stories of women being beaten up by their spouses or boyfriends because they refused to do something the man read or saw online, so the idea that an Indian woman will go nude for the magazine is likely to sexualize the issue of women's rights and heighten the stereotypes that women are objects," she said. The Indian woman has reportedly also taken up shop in Playboy owner Hugh Hefner's mansion. Chopra is the first Indian to grace the cover of the magazine. She said the shoot will be “explicit," which Gudnanti argues will be a negative for Indian society. “We deal with sexual violence towards women on a daily basis here and one of the reasons for this explosion, we believe, is that the media has sexualized and made women objects," she argued. “Look at Times of India's website and others, it is full of articles about women and sex, their bodies and images of naked or little clothed women. It is very sad," she added. Speaking to Times of India from the US during the shoot, Chopra said she felt “proud to be the first Indian to do it," and added, “The youth is racing towards liberalization, and that's why being unconventional in your choices is no longer a taboo."
