Paoli Dam wants Calcutta to just shut up and listen. The Bengali actress, who has kicked up a storm with an explicit nude scene in Chhatrak, says the film is world cinema. “It’s just that the language is Bengali. It’s not the regular fare Tollywood churns out every Friday,” says the dusky beauty, who walked the red carpet in Cannes earlier this year as the film’s lead actress.

The scene, which has been attracting eyeballs on the Net, shows the characters played by Paoli and Anubrata stripping off and engaging in oral sex.

A new wave seems to be sweeping across Tollywood. And among those lapping it up enthusiastically are young actresses who are shedding clothes along with inhibition.

“What’s the big deal,” asks Bidita Bag, 22, whose recent film Icche was a box office success. “I did almost-nude shots during my modelling days.” Bag, however, adds that she was initially “scared” about the scene — where her “passionate” kiss arouses sexual jealousy in her boyfriend’s mother. “But now I think I am more open to sex scenes if I feel they are necessary for a film.”

Dam, who has never shied away from intimate scenes, be it in Gautam Ghose’s Kaalbela (2009), Sharon Datta’s Thana Theke Aschhi (2010) or Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay’s Kagojer Bou (2011), seems to have raised the bar in Tollywood. Bengali actresses, and even actors, are stripping without batting an eye.

Not surprisingly, the number of Bengali feature films with an ‘A’ or adults only certificate is shooting up. From 9 per cent in 2008, it went up to 13.6 per cent in 2010.

More and more young Tollywood actresses believe sexuality is an intrinsic part of Bengal’s multiplex cinema, pointing out that if the film demands sex, they are open to it.

“Whether I bare or not depends on a film’s script and director,” says Ushashie, whose forthcoming film Bedroom is already drawing attention for her sex scenes (not in the nude though) with actor Rudranil Ghosh. Ushashie is a journalist in the film directed by Mainak Bhaumik, who made Bengal’s first sex comedy Aamra in 2006. “But what also matters to me is whether a film truly reflects contemporary times and its problems, be it corruption, terrorism or sexuality.”

Bidita and Ushashie are not alone. Swastika Mukherjee will be seen — up, close and very personal — in films such as Saugata Ray Barman’s Tabe Tai Hok and Maach, Mishti ’N’ More. Parno Mitra, who plays a muse to an ageing singer enacted by Anjan Dutta in Ranjana Ami Aar Ashbona (2011), features in Bedroom and Ekla Akash, where she plays a married woman attracted to an older professor.

“A script can tell us if sex scenes have been inserted as an extraneous or an integral aspect in the film,” says Debleena Datta, who will soon be seen as having sex with a married man in Ekla Akash. “If a sex scene or even nudity is shot realistically and aesthetically, I will consider it.”

BOLD BRIGADE: Debleena Datta with a co-star in Ekla Akash and (left) Paoli Dam of Chhatrak fame

One reason actresses are opening up to sex scenes is the advent of a new breed of professional directors. “Many young directors are making middle-of-the-road or art-house films and seem to be more conversant with world cinema than their predecessors,” reasons filmmaker Raja Dasgupta, whose sons Birsa and Ribhu are a part of the new brigade.

Filmmakers stress that contemporary Bengali directors are exploring psycho-social dramas or the human mind. “And sexuality is an integral part of it,” says Atanu Ghosh, who made Angshumaner Chhobi (2009) and Takhan Teish (2011) which dealt with complex urban relationships. “Audiences too are maturing. They don’t get agitated about adult content.”

The censor board — now more open to adult themes than ever before — has done its bit too. “In the past, directors had to be more subtle with portraying sexuality on screen because of stricter censorship rules,” says Dasgupta.

Though sex scenes are becoming more and more daring, they are not new to Tollywood either. “We didn’t have to be overtly sexual,” says Locket Chatterjee, who played a lesbian actress trying to seduce a wannabe actress in Aniket Chattopadhyay’s Chha E Chhuti.

Actress Churni Ganguly, who earned plaudits for portraying the travails of a flat-chested woman in Shunyo E Buke (2005), stresses that intimate scenes never stand in the way when she decides about signing films. “In some cases, the physical proximity between actors has actually carried the film forward,” she says.

In the earlier films, however, sex cropped up differently. Ace photographer Nemai Ghosh, who worked closely with Satyajit Ray, points out that Bengali filmmakers — and stars — ably dealt with sexuality. “In Ray’s Ghaire Baire, the protagonists kissed on screen foretelling a dangerous liaison,” says Ghosh. “Samit Bhanja and Simi Garewal had explicit scenes in Aranyer Din Ratri.” But these films, he points out, didn’t go piggybacking on sex.

The difference between yesterday and today is that cinematic sex is more radical now. For instance, even actors are ready to do the Full Monty if a script demands so. “Acting should not have a moral guardian. If my calling demands that I get cosy with my co-star in a fictional set-up, I am free to do so,” says Rudranil Ghosh. “If I can play the role of a thief or a policeman, why can’t I take off clothes in front of the camera?”

Anubrata, who has a theatre background, is yet another actor who’s making his presence felt with films such as Chhatrak and Qaushik Mukherjee’s Gandu. While Chhatrak is expected to hit the theatres after the Pujas, Gandu is awaiting a censor board verdict, mainly because of scenes showing frontal nudity and masturbation.

Filmmaker Mukherjee — better known as Q — however stresses that he feels he’s in a minority. “In my films, I am actually challenging the commodification of sex and patriarchal attitude towards sexuality,” says Q, whose 2009 feature film Bish was about three Bengali women going on a sexual rampage one night.

There’s another factor at work in the sudden surge of candid scenes. Sex titillates — and some films tend to use sex to lure audiences. “There will always be a class of audience which will go to film festivals to watch nudity — even Satyajit Ray took potshots at such people in his film Pratidwandi,” says Moinak Biswas, professor, film studies, Jadavpur University.

But film watchers stress that a film can’t hit the jackpot on the premise that sex sells. “While audiences can be attracted to films with overt sexuality, they can be put off by it too. You cannot force titillation,” says Biswas.

Others argue that commercial films cannot always ride on adult content. “Commercial films bring in sexuality through item numbers while art-house filmmakers use it as a weapon,” says actress Rituparna Sengupta. “Some of them create controversies with bold scenes. And let’s face it, these controversies help to create an initial interest in the film. Whether or not that translates into box office collection comes later.”

Some films have been financially successful. “There is a huge overseas market for bold Bengali films such as Memories in March, which explores alternative sexuality, or Urochithi (the 2011 film is a hit in Calcutta),” says Devashis Ray, executive director, Databazaar Media Ventures, which distributes Bengali films in North America.

However, producers of even multiplex films want to exercise caution. “Sometimes I chop and change my films if I feel some scenes may fetch us an ‘A’ certificate,” says Joy Ganguly, producer of films such as The Bong Connection. “I’d like to get U/A certificates because I don’t want to alienate a larger audience comprising mashimas and pishimas (aunts).” Adds Vinod Lahoti, city-based businessman and producer of Chhatrak: “I’ll support only art-house Bengali cinema of international standards, not the potboilers.”

But film watchers stress that in the final analysis it’s the content of a film that matters — not the sex. “A film’s actors can run around naked for hours. But its fate will ultimately be decided by its substance and style,” sums up Shyamal Karmakar, filmmaker and professor, Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Calcutta.

Either way, adds Nemai Ghosh — almost echoing Dam — sex in cinema doesn’t deserve a hue and cry. “We all know what couples do when they are together in a room. If you show it on screen, that’s fine. Just don’t talk about it incessantly,” he says.