Juhi Chawla recalls how she squirmed and sobbed when she had to enact a song
with vulgar connotations in David Dhawan's Andaz. In the same film when Anil
Kapoor had to lisp double entendre dialogues, he did it without batting an
eyelid. "But I frankly had no idea what it meant," Anil says in hindsight.
He can't claim the same now. In No Entry, which brother Boney Kapoor has
produced, Anil is part of quite a raunchy cast, all of whom are busy ogling,
leering and making suggestive sounds of appreciation.
Boney Kapoor is also the producer of Bachke Rehna Re Baba. His past flop
productions have apparently taught him to butter his bread in the right manner.
Lara Dutta, who stars in No Entry, was part of the sex comedy Masti (one of the
first of the farcical films that has taken over our films).
Lara, stressing her innocence, says: "I didn't have a single vulgar action or
word in Masti. Nor have I done anything even remotely objectionable in No
Entry. My role is akin to Tabu's brassy Punjabi housewife's act in Biwi No.1.
Sometimes one ends up saying or doing vulgar things unknowingly."
Manisha Koirala, recounting her experience while shooting for a film called
Chuppa Rustom, says: "They shot an entire song with me from the strangest of
angles, even changed the tune and lyrics after shooting. I ended up looking
extremely vulgar on screen."
Manisha says that a lot of times stars end up doing vulgar things without their
knowledge. This seems an unlikely explanation for what Tusshar Kapoor was seen
doing in Kya Kool Hain Hum. "The film is a sign of changing times," he says.
Sister Ekta Kapoor, known to produce wholesome family soaps, says the sequel to
Kya Kool... would be even more raunchy and sexy. "Please stay out if you're
churlish about sex comedies."
With prominent mainstream producers like Boney Kapoor (Bachke Rehna Re Baba, No
Entry) and Ekta Kapoor (Kya Kool Hain Hum) going in for raunchy films, there's
widespread panic among the followers of aesthetic filmmaking.
Shraddha Pagare, who recently launched her production company Celeste-Moi, is
at her wit's end.
"I'm an outside player in Bollywood. And I'm confused at the kind of films that
work. On one end there's Parineeta. On the other end there's Kya Kool... They
are worlds apart.
"I'm planning to launch three new films. One featuring Sanjay Suri to be
directed by Vikram Bhatt, another with Sammir Dattani to be helmed by Anant
Mahadevan, and a third hard-hitting woman-centric subject about a wife who's
declared infertile until she becomes pregnant through a man other than her
husband. This is the kind of actors, filmmakers and subjects I believe in."
Bollywood's resident movie magnate Yash Chopra has the last word.
"Going by some of the films that have worked at the box office lately, it seems
we filmmakers have a lot to worry about."
