NEW DELHI: Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh is in the throes of raging controversy following a nude photoshoot for a magazine cover. Not only is the talented actor relentlessly trolled on social media, but a string of first information reports (FIRs) have also been filed against him.
On Tuesday, even Mumbai police registered an FIR against him for his tendentious photoshoot. A statement issued by the Mumbai Police on Tuesday said, “Actor Ranveer Singh posted his nude pictures online as well as published them in a magazine and earned money for them. At the same time, he tried to corrupt the young generation and to spoil society. Further, his actions led to a feeling of shame in the minds of women. Hence, based on the complainant’s statement, an FIR has been registered against him.”
This isn’t the first-time that salacious photographs of a celebrity have sparked off an uproar. Let’s look at five most instances when Bollywood movie stars landed in the soup for their scabrous photos:
1) Mamata Kulkarni: Mamata was arguably the most controversial Bollywood star in the early 1990s. From dishing out lurid details about her “sex life” and taking nasty cracks at her co-stars to doing outrageously bawdy photoshoots, she kept gossip magazines busy.
In 1993, she did a topless cover-shoot for a ‘Stardust’ magazine and set the tongues wagging. She not only copped excoriation from various women organisations but was also booked under India’s obscenity laws. However, all this sizzle and sass was short-lived as she fell into the valley of wilderness after the mid 1990s and disappeared from the public consciousness.
2) Madhu Sapre and Milind Soman: Milind Soman created a furore when he did a flaming photoshoot with his then girlfriend Madhu Sapre in 1995 for the commercial of a shoe manufacturer. In the picture, Milind and Madhu are seen fondling and caressing each other while a python is wrapped around them.
Both the models received blistering barbs from the industry for their “indecent” act. Reacting to the controversy, Sapre had commented, “I think I was shocked in the sense, I found it very funny because I didn’t expect it from the film industry. Because film is such a field or career where unless and until you don’t expose yourself and if you don’t have a se*y image, you are nowhere. I did not kill anybody, I did not rob anybody. I don’t know what they were talking about.”
3) Mahesh Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt: Mahesh Bhatt was the enfant terrible of Bollywood and had a penchant for making headlines. In the late 1980s, he created a stir when he told ‘Filmfare’ in an interview that if Pooja was not her daughter, he would have liked to marry her.
The statement in isolation seems fairly innocuous but it was accompanied by a graphic picture of both kissing each other on lips passionately. Even for a fraternity where folks are usually liberal, their photograph sent shock waves and prompted many people to lambaste them.
4) Akshay Khanna and Twinkle Khanna: In 2009, Twinkle Khanna found herself in a pickle when she breezily unzipped her husband Akshay Kumar during the Lakme Fashion show. The ‘Khiladi’ Kumar stopped in front of his wife and asked her to unbutton her. Though Twinkle was a tad hesitant, she finally obliged her husband.
Their act was followed by several complaints from social organisations and the couple were arrested for performing a vulgar act in public. Later, they were released on bail and apologised for their action.
5) Neetu Chandra and Krishika Gupta: The ‘Garam Masala’ actress made waves after her ‘intimate’ shoot with the model Krishika Gupta for ‘The Men’ magazine in 2009. Both of them gave an array of suggestive poses for the photoshoot which took place outside the Three Star Hotel in Mumbai.
A group of people belonging to Raj Thackeray’s party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena protested against this photoshoot and even attempted to attack the shooting crew by proclaiming that they were glamourising homosexuality through it.