DIRTY PICTURE
BUSINESSMAN RAJ KUNDRA’S ARREST IN AN ALLEGED PORN RACKET HAS BROUGHT INTO FOCUS INDIA’S LAWS ON PORNOGRAPHY, REIGNITING THE DEBATE OVER DEFINITIONS OF OBSCENITY AND EROTICA
Raj Kundra’s arrest in an alleged porn racket has led to a debate over definitions of obscenity and erotica
On February 4, the Mumbai Police landed at a secluded bungalow in Madh Island, located on the northern tip of the island city, to find two persons being filmed in intimate poses. The actors and the five-member crew were arrested on the spot. The police was acting on a tip-off, part of its investigation into complaints filed by six aspiring actresses against filmmakers who were allegedly pressuring them to perform in ‘pornographic movies’. The police found that the videos shot in the bungalow, made up of six small rooms, a kitchen and a garden, were being uploaded on paid websites and mobile applications like HotShots, HotHit and Nueflix.
Six months later, millionaire businessman Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, who has stakes in several companies and even the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Rajasthan Royals, was arrested. The crime branch of the Mumbai Police arrested Kundra on July 19 for his alleged links with the UK-based Kenrin Production House that owns ‘HotShots’, a paid streaming app which, as per its description on the app store, promised “private content from hot photoshoots, short movies and experience of the lifestyle of celebrities from all over the world”. The app has been taken off app stores since. Kenrin is owned by Kundra’s business partner and brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi, and HotShots was developed by Kundra’s company Armsprime Media.
Apart from Kundra, 10 more people have been arrested on charges of luring young women to perform in these videos with promises of big roles in Bollywood. Other charges relate to the electronic transmission
of the alleged ‘pornographic content’ and profiting from the illegal business. Kundra and the others have been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 34 (common intention), 292 and 293 (related to obscene and indecent advertisements and displays) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), besides sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.
Kundra also stands accused of using the office of Viaan Industries, owned by him and named after his son, to electronically transmit mature content to Kenrin. In a statement to the police on July 22, Viaan Industries CEO Ryan Thorpe said that he had been asked to delete several video clips stored on the company’s server after the female actors’ complaints became public in February.
As per Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner of police (crime), Kundra’s links with Bakshi and Umesh Kamat, Kundra’s former assistant and another accused in the case, are well-known. Bharambe says that Kamat worked as a representative of Kenrin in India, which allegedly commissioned adult films under contract from several agents. It also allegedly facilitated the funding. He adds that Kamat and model-actor Gehana Vasisth were allegedly among those producing the videos and digitally transmitting them to Kenrin.
‘Erotica, not porn’
Both Raj Kundra and Vasisth, though, have claimed that the content on HotShots cannot be categorised as “pornography”. “I worked with Raj on three films,” says Vasisth. “We made erotica, bold films, but none of them fall under the category of ‘porn’.” A tweet by Vasisth also said, “If you see, apps like Netflix and Amazon have bolder content than this...the police has just misinterpreted.” Kundra’s lawyer, Abad Ponda, adds: “No scene shows two persons indulging in the act of intercourse.”
This has given way to a debate on erotica vs pornography. What is the difference and what can the videos in question really be categorised as?
Viewing sexually explicit material in private spaces is not illegal. However, as per the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act, 2012, “watching, possessing or downloading” child pornography is a crime. Also, Section 354C of the IPC and Section 66E of the IT Act, 2000, have provision for punishment for capturing and circulating videos violating the privacy of a girl or woman. Section 67 of the IT Act also prohibits the production, distribution, transmission and publication of ‘obscene material’ in electronic form. The offence is punishable with imprisonment of up to three years and/ or a fine of up to Rs 5 lakh. Websites like PornHub, registered in foreign countries, do not come under the ambit of Indian law.
At least three women actors have openly come out against Kundra. Model Sagarika Suman says she was called in
for a nude audition. “When I asked who the producer was, they said it was Raj Kundra’s company.” Poonam Pandey, who was arrested in November 2020 for allegedly shooting an ‘obscene video’ in a public place in Goa, said in a statement to the media, that she was harassed in 2019 after refusing to sign a contract with Kundra’s production house. “Someone put my phone number out on social media telling people that if they call me, I will strip for them,” she said. Actress Sherlyn Chopra released a video on July 21 this year in which she claimed that she was the first to complain against Kundra’s Armsprime. She, too, has recorded her statement against the company with the Mumbai Police.
While seeking Kundra’s custody for investigation, the Mumbai Police argued in court that several videos on HotShots and HotHit, which the police now has in its possession, showed couples performing sexually explicit acts which negate his claim of the videos being “erotica”.
According to the FIR, the other women said that the producers would tell them that if they refused to sign the contract and act in these movies, they would not get a break in the film industry. The six women complainants have produced copies of the forms they had signed for Vasisth and the other accused. These consent forms state that the women had agreed to perform “intimate, erotic, bold scenes, including lip lock, smooch scenes, topless/ nude scenes” under their “own will and not under any pressure from the production house”. The women allege that they were paid Rs 10,000 for performing intimate scenes of durations ranging from 12 to 20 minutes. However, the consent form did not bear the name of the production house, its registration number, name of the web series or the release schedule.
The lucrative porn/ softcore industry, unsurprisingly, has flourished during the pandemic with people confined to their homes. According to PornHub, the world’s most visited adult film website, since the implementation of the
Covid-mitigating national lockdown in March 2020, India registered a 33 per cent increase in porn consumption, mostly among the 28-34 age group, against the world average of 10.5 per cent. In 2020, India toppled Canada to take third place in the global list of countries watching the most porn. The US tops the list, followed by the UK. PornHub data also points towards an emerging trend of exponential rise in the demand for home-grown content.
Where the Money Is
The police have also found that the profit margins in the production of these movies are high. For instance, a 20-minute video can be produced for just Rs 3 lakh, including location costs and payment to the actors and cameraman and, upon sale, can fetch its makers up to Rs 20 lakh in a month.
After the initial investigation, the police have claimed that HotShots had 2 million subscribers who were paying a membership of Rs 100 per month to access the video content on the app. The police also found a WhatsApp group chat on Kundra’s mobile phone in which he allegedly talked about his earnings through producing these films. The police claim that Kundra was planning to take HotShots down last year, before it was blacklisted by the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in April 2021 for its objectionable content. “The WhatsApp group chats show that Kundra had plans to sell 119 videos to an individual for $1.2 million,” says an investigating officer, on condition of anonymity. “We are finding out whether the deal materialised.”
The chargesheet filed in the court on July 23 states that Kundra runs another company called Bollyfame Media Limited, to which Kundra planned to shift HotShot’s content. The chargesheet also contains a PowerPoint presentation made by Kundra suggesting that Bollyfame could generate revenues of Rs 146 crore with a net profit of Rs 30 crore by 2023-24.
The Mumbai Police claim to have found that Kundra received Rs 2.7 lakh on February 3 from mobile app
HotHit, an app classified as “mature” on the GooglePlay Store. Similarly, he received Rs 95,000 on January 23, Rs 1 lakh on January 20, Rs 2 lakh on January 13, and Rs 3 lakh on January 10 from the same app.
Raj Kundra’s arrest has created a huge buzz around the business of adult content and erotica. He has been denied bail, and is currently being held in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail. While the police investigation seems to suggest they have enough evidence against him, the offence will still need to be proven in a court of law. ■