Barenaked Indian Ladies

It recently came to light that bodacious babe Bips dared to bare all torso-upwards during her days as a struggling model. Before burning up the silver screen with her bold moves in the Bhatt camp’s glorious ode to marital infidelity, Jism, Bips shot an ad in the buff for New York Lotto, where she ‘prepares’ herself for joyful communion with a prince, played by Vivek Oberoi.

The 1-minute-long ad shows a naked Bips being bathed by helpful maidens with a languorous side shot, a la Helen Hunt in ‘As Good As It Gets’, where you can see something, but not really. It’s a very tasteful (isn’t that the preferred adjective for controversial nudity?) shot and the only thing one can get indignant about is that she does all this for a man who sports a Sadhana fringe.

Speaking of yesteryear heroines, Bollywood beauties have, for want of a better expression, gone quasi-commando in movies through the ages. The showman of the millennium, Raj Kapoor, had not one, not two, but three women exposing ample or hints of flesh in his masterpiece, Mera Naam Joker. (Simi Garewal hadn’t yet discovered white then, I suppose). Then there was Zeenat Aman in Satyam Shivam Sundaram, who might have championed the (Shakespearean?) cause of beauty lying in the eyes of the beholder, especially if the all-seeing eyes are a tad, um, downcast and Mukesh was lending you his voice to serenade your lady onscreen. What about the oh-so-tender shot of Mandakini calling out to Chimpu Kapoor against the backdrop of gushing rapids in Ram Teri Ganga Maili? Nobody’s discovered the answer to “Why Chimpu Kapoor?” so far.

If you’re seeking similar instances that are not restricted to the silver screen, there was the Madhu Sapre-Milind Soman Tuff Shoes ad, in which both were as naked as the day they were born but for the shoes on their feet with a slithering snake for company, doing what the maple leaf does in such situations. (This was pre-Marathi Mhanoos/Mulgi days, I think). And who can forget danseuse Protima Bedi who streaked on a beach in the wee hours of the morning on a day you were most likely sleeping, blissfully unaware of the beauty of sunrise. You think Maradona was inspired by this, perhaps?

Barenaked Indian ladies have either been the reason for wild box-office success, overnight stardom or controversies that resonate years after they bade adieu to modesty.