Adult content in Hindi-Urdu cinema
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A pictorial history of nudity in Indian cinema
The authors of this article include
i) Director Kidar Sharma talks about the famous bathing scene from Chitralekha (1941)
ii) Stripped to the bare essentials
By Shoma A Chatterji ATimes Jul 10, 2003
iii) Topless scenes in movies The Times of India
iv) IndiaToday
In India, sex does not sell
While there have been several attempts to show nudity in Indian cinema in general, and Hindi-Urdu cinema in particular, filmmakers perhaps shot those scenes for their personal pleasure. More than half those scenes were chopped off by the censors. Of those that made it to the screen, films that included them flopped miserably. Only Ram Teri Ganga Maili was a hit and Satyam Shivam Sundaram did well, both by positioning themselves for B-audiences. Dastak did well for its budget.
The biggest hits in the history of Indian cinema, from Mughal e Azam to Sholay and Hum aapke Hain Koun? have all been squeaky clean.
1938: Brahmachari
Meenakshi Shirodkar, who belonged to a thitherto-conservative Maharashtrian Brahmin family, created a furor in 1938 when she appeared a swimming costume in Master Vinayak’s Marathi/ Hindi film Brahmachari.
1941: Chitralekha
Director Kidar Sharma recalls about the famous bathing scene from Chitralekha (1941): "In this film, I had even bared a beauty on the silver screen for the first time with such finesse, in a bathing scene by Miss Mehtab, that nothing was revealed, but it created an illusion of great feminine charm.
"Before we started shooting the bathing scene, I took my heroine Mehtab aside and explained to her how and why I was doing the scene. She said, “If the story demands this scene, I see no vulgarity in it, and so I am not afraid to strip, because we have no ugliness to hide. However I do have one condition. I consider my director to be just like my father and I will only strip if you ask everyone to clear the set. Since you are a good photographer yourself, please ask the cameraman to set the lights and the camera using a double, and when the set is cleared of everyone, you will be the only one with me and I will gladly perform. When you say the word action I will strip and enter the marble tub and enact the scene where I have to wash my body with a lotus flower till I hear the word `cut’… but there should be no retakes.” I agreed and Mehtab gracefully and beautifully performed.
"All the critics, barring K.A. Abbas and the correspondent of Deen Duniya, a magazine published from Delhi, panned it ruthlessly. They called it vulgar. "
1970
Mera Naam Joker
In the first segment of Raj Kapoor's three-part Mera Naam Joker (1970) young Rishi Kapoor is tormented by guilt at having seen his teacher (played by Simi Garewal) in the nude. In his thoughts we see quick flashes of the naked back, including derriere, of a totally naked woman who is either Garewal or her body double, naked or in a body suit. The legal version of the film posted on YouTube contains this scene. In the third segment, Padmini's nipples can be seen through a wet sari. The film was passed for Universal exhibition.
Dastak
In Dastak (1970) when audiences saw debutante Rehana Sultan's back, her hand cupped over her breast youtube. And that is what toplessness has generally meant in Indian cinema: a bare back. The film was certified for Adults Only.
The 197Os: Topless scenes: mostly unseen in India
The first Indian film that claimed to have a topless scene was O.P. Ralhan's Hulchul (1971). The actress Sonia Sahni played Kabir Bedi's wife in the film. In the scene she is having a bubble bath in a bathtub when she gets a telephone call from a stranger saying that he husband is having an affair. This causes her to jump out of the bathtub, her breasts bare. The scene never got shown in India.
Faryal did a similar topless scene in Buniyaad (1972): all we could see was her bare back. Shatrughan Sinha stood between her bare breasts and the audience.
In B.R. Ishara's Zaroorat (1972) Reena Roy, also a debutante, was seen from above, naked except for a panty. Again, her breasts could not be seen. Therefore, as in Dastak, the scene got past the Indian censors.
Shoma A Chatterji informs us that in V Shantaram's Channi (perhaps Chaani / 1977) starring Ranjana, 'there was an abominable scene where a psychopath makes love to the nude corpse of the heroine.' (The scene was deleted from the version that Indpaedia's correspondent has seen.)
Be-abroo (1983), a C-film, had debutante Apeksha in a topless scene, but again no breasts were visible.
In 1984 the now-defunct film magazine Star & Style announced that three 'dedicated' actresses had decided to act in topless scenes. Neena Gupta in Girish Karnad-Shashi Kapoor's Utsav (1984), Rohini Hattiangady in Govind Nihalani's Party (1984) and Sarika in an unreleased arthouse film by Jalal Agha. At least Indian audiences never got to see the fruits of their dedication.
Raj Kapoor: getting away with more than other directors
In Raj Kapoor's Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram (1978) Zeenat Aman's breasts were seen, as in the same filmmaker's Joker eight years before, through a wet sari, which proved that she had the periodic bath. Not content with that, Kapoor got Aman to bend over so that viewers knew that she did not have a stiff back (and medical students could examine her breast from the side). He got her to change her bodice before the audience so that they were reassured that she did not wear the same clothes all day.
Kapoor repeated the nipples-through-wet-sari formula in Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985). See Hindi-Urdu cinema: 1980-89 However, he added two breast feeding scenes, joining WHO's worldwide campaign to promote breast feeding. In the second of those scenes the baby removes its mouth, giving Indian audiences the first uncovered nipple in Indian cinema. Along with Siddhartha and Hiss (both of which, officially are American films) and Trishagni (in which the nude actress' face is not shown, so it might have been a body double) this remains the only film to actually show a bare breast. Otherwise, to repeat, 'topless' scenes in India mean bare backs. So far. 'Kamasutra 3D' promises to change all that. It might be the first Indian film where we get to see digitally blurred breasts in all of 3D (having first seen airbrushed breasts in 2D in Mr Singh... ).
Padmini Kolhapure played the young Zeenat in SSS. Therefore, a few years later, as a teenager, she had no objection to being photographed naked from behind for a religious-exorcism scene for Gehrayee (1980). The scene got through the censors partly because her long hair covered much of her back and partly because it was passed off as a religious ritual.
1988: Trishagni
Trishagni (1988), a discursive arthouse film about lust and longing in a Central Asian Buddhist in ancient times, had the first full-frontal nude scene in the history of Indian cinema to get past the Indian censors. YouTube. It showed actress Pallavi Joshi or her body double have a bath, but the actress' face is not seen. Nothing is airbrushed. With dialogues in heavily Sanskritised Hindi, the film was such a non-starter at the box office that even at the time hardly anyone was aware that there was such a film.
Though the censors allowed Deepa Sahi breasts pass in her real-life husband Ketan Mehta's Maya Memsaab (1993), neither nudity not superstar Shah Rukh Khan could save the film from box-office disaster.
The Seema Biswas character in Bandit Queen (1994) was seen completely naked in a shot taken from above. Seema Biswas pointed out that a body double had been used. 'Bandit Queen was a commercial as well as critical success.
2010: Mr Singh/Mrs Mehta
Mr Singh/Mrs Mehta, which is about an artist and his nude model (played by Aruna Shields, a British-Indian actress) had prolonged full-frontal nude scenes, the breasts digitally blurred. Unlike Trishagni, the film got a commercial release, albeit a disastrous one. But it, too, remains almost unknown in India. Its DVD is freely available but mostly purchased by insomniacs looking for non-chemical methods to send them to sleep.
Topless in the 21st century
The Times of India ’s Indiatimes wrote in January 2014 “There has been an increasing trend in showcasing topless scenes in Bollywood movies of late. Heroines are no more afraid to drop clothes and go bold as per the demand of the script. Even though the censor board has been strict in handling such issues, there have been few hits and misses.” If the reader understands that in India 'topless' means that the director, cameraman and co-star feast their eyes but audiences get to see no more than bare backs, that in India 'topless' has almost always meant 'backless' (except for Hisss and Mr Singh...), then we can examine the extent of nudity seen in the 21st century films mentioned in Indiatimes’ list as well as others’ lists:
Apartment: Indiatimes informs us that Neetu Chandra went completely nude for a bathing scene in the film Apartment. (Not that the audiences saw it all)
Aurangzeb: Sasha, daughter of Salma Agha: topless with Arjun Kapoor in Aurangzeb.
Chitkabrey: Akshara Gowda and Russian actress Svetlana were seen in all-nude love-making scenes, but audiences saw mostly their backs. Svetlana’s breasts were seen, though.
Chokher Bali: Aishwarya Rai removed her top but audiences saw this only from behind.
Gangster: Kangana Ranaut was seen topless from behind.
Hate Story: Paoli Dam was seen topless from behind.
Hisss: Indiatimes informs us: ‘Sexy siren Mallika Sherawat indulged in frontal nudity in the film Hisss.’ (Yes, her bare breasts could be seen in the poster, but then this was an American, not Indian, film.)
Jail: Mugdha Godse Indiatimes was seen topless from behind in Madhur Bhandarkar's eponymous film.
Jism 2: Indiatimes informs us: ‘Pornstar-turned-Bollywood actress Sunny Leone left little to imagination while indulging in intimate acts with Randeep Hooda’.
Julie: Neha Dhupia was seen topless from behind.
Kamasutra 3D: Indiatimes informs us: ‘The ultimate sex-bomb of India Sherlyn Chopra is all set to live up to her reputation in the film Kamasutra 3D. When it comes to dropping clothes in front of the camera, the actress seem to have almost zero inhibitions.’ Her bare breast sequences seen so far have been digitally airbrushed.
Kurbaan: Kareena Kapoor was seen topless from behind.
Kites: Barbara Mori was seen topless from behind, with Hrithik Roshan.
Mr. Singh / Mrs. Mehta: Aruna Sheilds was seen naked, though digitally airbrushed.
Murder 3 (2013): Pakistani actress Sara Loren was seen topless from behind with Randeep Hooda.
Murder: Mallika Sherawat was seen topless from behind.
Nasha: Indiatimes informs us: ‘Poonam Pandey displayed her hot bod to the max in her debut film.’ However, from what has been seen so far, as usual the director, cameraman and co-star had their eyeful but audiences will only see bare backs.
Rascals: Lisa Hayden was seen topless from behind.
Tango Charlie: topless from behind.
Zeher: Udita Goswami was seen topless from behind.
Zindagi 50--50: Pakistani actress Veena Malik was seen topless from behind.
2003: Stark naked in Bengal
In the Bengali film Parmapar (2003) Subhra Basu played a young girl persuaded by her grandmother, who had been an art college model herself, to pose naked for the first time for art students. The sequence YouTube got past the censors because the scene is too dark for anything to be seen distinctly, except that Subhra Basu is standing and then lying prone, totally naked. Even though this was the first Bengali film with total nudity and the scene got talked and written about extensively, the film flopped and Subhra did not get even one film role in Bengal or elsewhere, not even one requiring her to strip again.
Kannada
See the article: Kannada cinema: 2010 onwards
