Bipasha Basu

The music-video queen turned flop movie actress Meghna Naidu had a brush with murky male conduct sometime back. While she was standing in the foyer of a hotel in Mumbai with her boyfriend some male revellers accosted her and subjected her to lewd comments and gestures. “Just because I’ve done a certain kind of role it doesn’t mean I am open to such behaviour. I too come from a decent family, have God-fearing parents and feel offended by lewd behaviour just like any other normal girl.”

Meghna admits men tend to look at girls with sexy images in a particular way and behave accordingly with them. This, according to the hurt and humiliated actress, is unfair. She refuses to blame her image for the disrespect shown to the actress. But the fact is, this is a country where a majority of the janta does take the image to be the real thing.

Some months ago Bipasha Basu had been grabbed and groped in a posh upmarket restaurant by a sozzled man, leaving Bips dazed with outrage. It was the swift intervention of her boyfriend John Abraham that prevented the situation from snowballing into a sleazy show of strength. Later, Bipasha opined, “This could’ve happened to any actress. Such predatory male attention has nothing to do with my image or celebrity status. Thousands of working girls are vulnerable to eve-teasing each day. They are not all well-known faces.”

Meghna Naidu

Bipasha’s line of argument notwithstanding, the fact remains actresses with hot images are more prone to predatory attention than their counterparts with relatively sedate images. It’s no coincidence that post-Murder Mallika Sherawat caused aggressive sweaty stampedes wherever she went. The audience had just seen her giving tongue and flesh to more than just the dialogues and her role. They thought Mallika was “a chalu cheez” and never mind if she protested that she lived like a nun. Fans would have none of it. Remember her concern for her wellbeing after Murder was declared a blockbuster? “It’s very tough for a single girl especially if she has a sexy image,” Mallika sighed. She got her brother over from her home town Rohtak. Then, she appointed two bouncers to protect her assets. That’s the same reason when any celebrity who gets the VIP in danger tag and is given Black Cats for company, the image and the dangerous attention it attracts, simple.

Mallika Sherawat

Actresses have always been prone to sexual attacks. It’s to do with the way they conduct themselves, additionally. Nobody would be provoked to mess around with Hema Malini. But her daughter Esha Deol who has acquired a bold image after Dhoom is susceptible to bouts of bawdy behaviour in public. “You learn to deal with it, I guess. And the best way to deal with unwanted attention is to ignore it,” says Raveena Tandon who has sailed through more than a decade of high-flying success as a pouty diva and is today blissfully ensconced in matrimony and motherhood.

It all depends on your own conduct. No one looked lewdly at actresses of the past. Meena Kumari or Hema were like goddesses. Today, you see the girls dancing half-naked in your homes (on TV). What impression can the average moviegoer take away, except that today’s heroines are easy prey,” asks Asha Parekh, yesteryears’ go-go girl.

Have the music-video actresses brought in a new perception of the audience-star relationship? Meghna Naidu says she feels concerned about the average girl who gets manhandled. And has no access to the media. But what have the Mallika Sherawats, Meghna Naidus, Rakhi Sawants and Payal Rohatgis of show-world done to ensure that the image of the women as sex objects isn’t misused onscreen?

STAR SHOCKS

What some of the stars have to say about vulgarity onscreen

Lara Dutta: “I didn’t have a single vulgar action or word in Masti. Nor have I done anything even remotely objectionable in No Entry. My role is akin to Tabu’s brassy Punjabi housewife act in Biwi No. 1. Sometimes one ends up saying or doing vulgar things unknowingly.” Now, now, is this Miss Universe ka andaaz? Say, A for apple...

MANISHA KOIRALA: “They shot an entire song with me (in Chhupa Rustam) from the strangest of angles, even changed the tune and lyrics after shooting. I ended up looking extremely vulgar onscreen.” Tch, tch, and all those chhotisi love stories?

ANIL KAPOOR: Juhi Chawla had squirmed and sobbed when she had to enact a song, Main hoon maal-gaadi mujhe dhakka laga, in David Dhawan’s Andaz. In the same film, Anil Kapoor had to lip Khadaa hai khadaa hai, and he did it without batting an eyelid. “But I frankly had no idea what it meant,” Anil says in hindsight. No? Such a good actor you are!

TUSSHAR KAPOOR: “The film is a sign of changing times.”

You mean, Kya Kool Hai Hum’s success has helped your floposcope no end?

EKTAA KAPOOR: “Please stay out if you’re churlish about sex comedies.” (The sequel to Kya Kool…is going to be raunchier, she has claimed.) Oh, the soppy soap kweenn is going to change the spelling of ssoap now? And, maybe, make the saas-bahus more kkool, too?

YASH CHOPRA: “Going by some of the films that have worked at the box-office lately it seems we filmmakers have a lot to worry about.”

Dhoom machaale,

Mr Chopra!