Nudity is a tricky subject for Indians. Skin show in any form — be it films or art — makes the moral police sit up with a frown. And often when protesters give vent to their ire, the brunt of their attack is focused on promotional mediums like posters. Poonam Pandey-starrer Nasha is the latest film in the line of fire.

Posters of this film are reported to have been torn and burnt in many parts of Mumbai. Previously, posters of Ragini MMS, Hate Story and Jism 2 were also pulled down for being too provocative.
Does this moral policing prove that depiction of sensuality and sexuality will never find room in an open domain in India? It’s a sensitive issue and needs to be handled in a mature manner, feel many.
Dr Ranjana Kumari, director of Centre for Social Research, says that filmmakers should refrain from showing too much skin on the posters. “Though we do have a Censor board, at times it is left defunct when filmmakers go ahead and release sexually provocative posters. I feel they are insensitive about society’s approach towards women and do not realise that sensual and titillating posters lead to sexual provocation among people who are otherwise sex-starved. I am not moralising on the whole issue but I believe nudity on posters somewhat damages the social consciousness of masses,” says Ranjana.
Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta, who herself has faced similar controversies, feels sensuality needn’t be blatant. “There are two ways to look at this controversy around sensational posters. One is the commercial aspect where filmmakers are publicising their film; other is that some do it purposely to attract the attention of masses when it is really not needed. I think you can show your film’s content on the posters but it needs to be done aesthetically. It’s a thin line to walk as posters should not be handled crudely or made too explicit. Beauty can be revealed in many other ways. Stripping is not the only recourse,” she says.
However director of recently released Zindagi 50-50, Rajiv S. Ruia, says that posters give a teaser about the content of the film, hence, there is bound to be some skin show if the film deals with a sensual topic. “If Veena Malik is playing a street walker in my film, I can’t show her all dressed up on the movie poster. We take stills from the movie storyline and in a way they tell the audience what the story is about. We can’t censor these posters, as they are essential to the story line. If Son Of Sardar is a film on sardars, its poster will show the same. Chennai Express is the story of a South Indian girl and a North Indian boy, and its posters tell the same. People need to understand that we are not objectifying our actresses on the posters, we are showing a glimpse of the role they play in the movie,” explains Ruia.
Adman Sandeep Goyal says that it has become a trick of the trade to launch provocative posters, but there can be different ways of showing sensuality. “Most of the makers follow the principle of WYHIWYG, which is ‘what you hear is what you get’. Here they translate it to — what you see is what you get! But when they are telling a story through the poster, it is always not necessary to make use of nudity, at times a shot of a zipper is equally sensual. Posters can be made sensual but need not be bold to a great extent,” ends he.