Skinshow has always been the sureshot ticket to instant fame. Fewer clothes, more eyeballs. Today, however, the competition is heated for the title of the best stripper with Roslyn Khan and Poonam Pandey leading the pack. True to original sizzler Rakhi Sawant’s words, “Yeh kapde pehne ka nahi, utarna ke zamana hai. (This is not the age to wear clothes, it’s the age to remove them.)”
Soon after Poonam Pandey’s dare-bare act for the Kolkata Knight Riders, Roslyn Khan, another wannabe model too stripped and posted topless pictures of her for M.S. Dhoni. Khan claims that she is the original stripper and a more “authentic” one than Pandey. She believes that you need drama to garner attention and publicity in today’s day and age. “Yeh nautanki ka zamana hai, thoda toh sabko karna padta hai.” She claims that Pandey’s pictures are photoshopped while her’s are genuine works of nakedness. “Poonam Pandey is a liar. She has misled the people of this country. None of her latest pictures for KKR are authentic,” she says.
Pandey says that publicity hungry models like Khan will always attack her while following her since it was she who started the trend. “I am not answerable to anyone. I see myself as a trendsetter as I started off the trend of stripping in India. It’s much later that these girls have come in,” she says. Obviously Poonam is not aware of a classic Protima Bedi streaking Juhu beach in what was a one-of-its-kind skinshow in 1974. She adds, “Most models and wannabe actors, who are publicity hungry, resort to this kind of cheap thrill of just stripping. For me, it was different since I did it for Team India, and unfortunately then things didn’t work out. However, I kept my KKR promise,” says Poonam, justifying why she in fact is a stripper with a cause. But is Roslyn far behind? “I have gone completely topless for my latest pictures through which I want to raise awareness for breast cancer,” Roslyn is quick to add.
Poonam, however, is on a constant quest to raise the bar. She plans to install a camera in her bedroom, which, in her words “would give her fans a different kind of entertainment”. “If the whole world enjoys the entertainment and the pictures, what’s the big problem? SRK is enjoying, my fans are thrilled so I don’t really see a reason to worry. I think on an international scale. I am quite proud about the fact that I have done things differently and most others follow suit.”
If there’s one thing both disrobers agree, it’s that stripping is an art and requires some “class”. Pandey says, “You just can’t take off clothes and bare it all.”
Khan agrees and gives her own version of “classy” stripping. “I have some topless videos of mine too, but they are all decent. Believe me, there were just two people in the room when we shot this, my female assistant and a female photographer. I am quite careful about who is going to shoot me and from which angle. All my pictures have been shot strategically,” she says.
Stripping may garner instant fame but how are these women preparing for the long haul? “I haven’t been flooded with any Bollywood offers. I am getting noticed, which is a huge start in itself. Most of the times, I am invited to strip for a cause. As long as I get some media attention, I don’t have a problem,” says Khan.
Pandey on the other hand says, “My upcoming film is quite bold and is classy. I want to let people know that I am talented as an actor, dancer and singer.”