SEX IN CINEMA SELLS & HOW!

Sex sells. And how. Every time you mention the once forbidden three-letter word, you hear a sigh Wow - By Jyothi Venkatesh

Though the censors may seem to be prudes when it comes to letting dare bare scenes of kissing in films these days, Indian Cinema was quite progressive way back in the 30’s when Lalita Pawar did not hesitate to flaunt her perfect figure in a bikini.

The so called sex films which had won Kerala so much “fame” or call it notoriety all over India, especially in the Hindi speaking belts eventually lost whatever little market they had within the State.

Although Malayalam films do not hesitate to portray unconventional liaisons, filmmakers stopped making films of the genre of Avalude Ravugal (Her Nights).

With the advent of small budget sleazy films like Avalude Ravugal, I.V. Sasi set the trend of directing films, which had realistic and shocking subjects.

Unfortunately with the success of Her Nights and a few other films, which had been unabashedly copied from Her Nights, Malayalam cinema became synonymous with soft porn, as far as the ordinary movie going audience outside Kerala State was concerned.

Subtle sex has always been one of the highlights of Shyam Benegal’s films be it Ankur, Nishant or for that matter Bhumika.

Benegal’s strong point has always been the way he puts across brutal power with sexual undertones.

In Ankur, Nishant, Manthan and Kondura, the inter relationship between power, ritual, sex and violence is repeatedly explored with remarkable persistence.

The vastness and barrenness of the land, the long blazing afternoons, the scarcity of nubile women adding to their desirability-Benegal has explored this area of passion and unreason with sureness of touch.

B.R. Chopra, whose Insaf Ka Tarazu had created a stir with its then quite bold depiction of the rape sequence of Zeenat Aman and Padmini Kolhapure by Raj Babbar has gone on record.

“Even the so very hotly discussed kiss did not encounter any difficulty in those days before Independence and I have seen quite a few Indian pictures displaying this art of making love.

It was mostly in silent films when the songs could not be there naturally. So a kiss was a kind of short cut to romantic scenes and people too accepted them without much fuss.”

Rape scenes became the order of the day once again in the early 70’s when the film Do Raha was made by producer Ram Dayal with Feroz Chonoy as the director.

The rape sequence between the late Roopesh Kumar and Radha Saluja is still being talked about for its unusually long duration.

Believe it or not the rape sequence went on and on for nearly twenty minutes during the climax of the film, eliciting catcalls and wolf whistles from the audiences while the unfortunate women who had thronged to see the film found themselves squirming in their seats restlessly.

Ramesh Sippy known for his deft direction of Sholay also has to his credit two films in which he could bring out the beast in men among the audience with his depiction of sex.

In Brashtachar, he shot a sequence in which blind Shilpa Shirodkar was brazenly raped by the villain Anupam Kher on a revolving bed and in Sagar, we saw Dimple baring her left breast while a song sequence was on with her and Rishi Kapoor.

Today while on one hand English films made in India or by NRIs have made their presence felt in a big way like Leela, Let’s Talk, Stumbled, Freaky Chakra, Hyderabad Blues, Bollywood Calling, Monsoon Wedding etc, on the other hand there has been a proliferation of small budget sex films which are shot in five or six days flat with a small budget of just seven or eight lakhs. These films do not need big stars.

Why, they do not even need stars because sex sells and when there is sex as the luring factor, who needs Shah Rukh Khan or Deepika Padukone?

These films have generated a lot of employment. The producers are happy that they can call the shots with willing actors and actors who are ready to do anything in front of the camera.

The distributors in turn are happy that their investments are safe and secure since the rights cost them only about three lakhs or so and they can easily recover their meager investment besides making moderate profits.

There are producers like Kanti Shah, Vinod Chhabra, Mohan Gehani, Kesar Matharu etc who have almost made a specialty of making such films with alarming regularity and laughing their way to the banks.

The reason is not hard to find. Today films starring bigwig stars are falling like ninepins. There is no guarantee as to which film is going to click and which one is going to bite the dust.

The producer is not here in the business for the sake of charity or for promoting art. He has to look after his interests.

At the rate at which big films are flopping, the day is not very far off when you will get to see only sleazy films made on a small budget with unknown and willing stars who are ready to display raw flesh on the screen.

After all, in Bollywood today, it is a question of survival of the fittest. In this case it seems like the survival of the one who is ready to bare the maximum.

But then take it from a film scribe like me who has put in almost five decades in this field. This is nothing but a passing phase.

As soon as the multiplexes come in a large number and the quality of films is improved with more focus on the script which is the right foundation and not the stars as it is today, the situation is going to go in for a big toss.

And instead of concentrating on sex and nudity, filmmakers may even start concentrating on family socials like in the 60’s and 70’s. There is a ray of hope.

Truth is stranger than fiction. With the film industry referred to as show business, if you do not show there is no business and as such anything and everything can happen in Bollywood any time.

Though at one time sleaze was the order of the day and films like Hawas, Julie and Fun clicked at the box office and starlets like Meghna Naidu, Neha Dhupia and Payal Rohatgi emerged as the hot stars overnight, with the flopping of films like Chahat Ek Nasha,Laila, Mazaa Mazaa, Time Pass etc , producers became wary of making sleazy sex oriented films which cater to the lowest common denominator.

Now when even respectable Marathi filmmakers like Ravi Jadhav has made a film called Nude and actress cum Marathi filmmaker Trupti Bhoir is planning to make her film Period though we wondered what after Masti, Grand Masti and Great Grand Masti , which was initially even banned by the Censors and Kyas Kool Hai Hum 1, 2 and 3 films like Mastizaade, One Night Stand, Love Games,Bold, Ek Se Kya Hoga etc passed by the Censors without any problem. With the advent of the OTT platform, all's fair in love , war and films. Your guess is as good as mine!