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Vijay Anand does porn films a favour
TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2002 12:46:47 AM ]
Kaajal Wallia & Meenakshi Shedde
MUMBAI: Porn films are in the limelight again, following the dramatic resignation of Vijay Anand, censor board chief, after the ministry of information and broadcasting refused to discuss his proposal for X-rated theatres for porn films.
Distributor Shyam Shroff of Shringar Films supports Vijay Anand’s proposal. "We should have a system of rating, including X-rating, as they have abroad. In India, laws are only for those who follow them. Little is done about the pornography available in video parlours or on the Internet. For that matter, south Indian TV channels show erotic songs and even many mainstream Hindi film songs have pelvic thrusts and bosom heaving that have been cleared by the censors."
Regardless of the law, the sex film industry is, like prostitution, a flourishing trade and estimated to be worth a robust Rs 50 crore. Trade sources say the biggest segments include blue films in Hindi, as well as blue Malayalam films and foreign films dubbed into Hindi. The Malayalam segment is estimated to be three times bigger than the Hindi market. After the censors have done their number, producers put "bits" and "masala", as the sex scenes are known in the trade, mostly from uncensored foreign films or the censored out bits of Indian films.
You would not have thought Amitabh Bachchan had anything to do with the blue film boom, but he does, though unwittingly. Says Yogendra Konkar, producer-director-actor of erotic films like Saali Poori Gharwali (SPG), the biggest Hindi blue hit last year, "With the decline of the Amitabh Bachchan era in the late ‘80s, the market for porn films has grown by almost 50 per cent. He was the last crowd-puller we had."
But even blue film distributors get the blues. The censored adults film market is being eaten into by both uncensored homemade and imported blue films. Some hard-pressed distributors and exhibitors are willing to go legal. Says a distributor, "We have been raided several times. We would welcome X-rated theatres, since we would not be harassed as much for haftas."
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