Sex and sensibility: Bollywood erotica in the time of Censor curbs
by The Daily Eye Team February 25 2015, 2:43 pm Estimated Reading Time: 1 min, 4 secsFrom Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978), Utsav (1984), Anubhav (1986) and Kama Sutra (1996) to the more recent Jism (2003) and Murder (2004), you can hardly call erotica novel in our films. Yet, Bollywood still has the reputation of being prudish when it comes to sex, or erotica.
But, in the last few years, we’ve seen a fair bit of it. After Shilpa Shukla played a bored housewife who seduces a college-goer in BA Pass (2013), the following year saw Sunny Leone star in the ‘horrex’, Ragini MMS 2 (2014). Then, Rahul Bagga played a sex author in Mastram (2014), and Surveen Chawla and Jay Bhanushali shared steamy scenes in Hate Story 2 (the 2014 sequel to the 2012 erotic thriller, Hate Story). This year, four erotic films — Ek Paheli Leela, One Night Stand, Kamasutra 3D and XXX — are up for release. And while promotions for some of them are underway — and they range from bold to seriously risqué — there are stumbling blocks. With a reshuffle of censor board members, and a new diktat being issued regarding the use of expletives, clearances may be hard to come by. Even the Hollywood film, Fifty Shades Of Grey — which was set for a Valentine’s Day release — is yet to get the required certification.