[icernet] Bollywood directors discover sex sells

[Arul Selvan]

  Cinema audiences in India are in for a shock: a string of films 
featuring previously taboo story lines, explicit dialogue and sex scenes 
are hitting the countrys silver screen this summer. Young film-makers 
have thrown away the mould of self-censorship that meant even 
passionless kissing rarely appeared on screen. Bollywood studios have 
been stung after a series of flops attributed to the audiences growing 
boredom with predictable plots and action. The industry is banking on 
the new films to break its losing streak. But the new wave is more than 
just about making money. Bollywoods departure signals a change in 
social attitudes that makes it acceptable to audiences who would once 
have shunned such erotic fare.

Economic liberalisation and satellite television with its Baywatch 
images changed all that. Even the Hindu Right, defenders of Indias 
traditional family values, has remained silent on Bollywoods new wave. 
By Western standards, Bollywoods latest incarnation is still tame, but 
the lusty kissing, raunchy dialogue and no-holds-barred story lines are 
a refreshing eye-opener for Indian viewers. Until now, sex was only 
hinted at - cut to flowers bumping in the breeze or birds necking. Sex 
was entirely absent from the mainstream Indian cinema.

Instead, the low-budget potboilers awarded adult certificates by censors 
would be screened for an exclusively male clientèle in provincial 
morning shows. Their directors habitually spiced up the bland version 
that won censorship approval by re-inserting saucier scenes for 
distribution. Yet the new mainstream films have been crafted for 
middle-class metropolitan viewers raised on MTV. Nudity is still out in 
what directors maintain are family films, but a lot of kissing, condoms 
and rampant female sexuality takes them a world away from the coy, 
fluttering eyelashes of yesteryear.

Source:
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=564352003