Actor questioned by police over obscenity charges
BOLLYWOOD star Ranveer Singh was grilled by police on Monday (29) on charges of “obscenity” after posting nude images of himself on social media.
Singh, 37, in July revealed the racy photographs shot for New York-based Paper magazine, sparking a media frenzy in India and resulting in complaints.
Mumbai police questioned Singh for more than two hours on Monday on charges of “corrupting youth of society” and “embarrassing women”, police said.
“The inquiry is ongoing,” senior police inspector Jaykumar Suryavanshi said, without disclosing details of Singh’s statement.
The photographs of Singh, the star of hits Gully Boy and Simmba, stretched out naked on a carpet provoked a storm of debate on India’s rolling TV news.
“Of course, this is vulgar, we can see his bum... it’s a national issue!” exclaimed lawyer Vedika Chaubey during a panel show on broadcaster NDTV, days after lodging a complaint against Singh with the police.
Singh, who is married to fellow superstar actress Deepika Padukone, is heading down a welltrodden path of complaints and charges against celebrities falling foul of vague colonial-era rules about “obscenity”.
“Like they say, ‘beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’.
“Obscenity very much therefore... lies in the crotch of the beholder,” Supreme Court lawyer Faisal Sherwani said.
Personalities hit by complaints include fellow Bollywood megastar Aamir Khan, who was naked apart from a strategically placed cassette player in a poster promoting his 2014 movie PK.
Model turned actor Milind Soman was hit with charges after baring it all in a 1995 shoe advertisement with model Madhu Sapre and a python. The charges were dropped after 14 years.
Renowned artist MF Husain fled the country after a painting depicting a nude woman posing across a map of the country got him into legal trouble. He died in self-imposed exile in 2011.
Earlier this year, a professor in Kolkata said she was fired after posting photographs of herself in a bikini on Instagram. The university is reportedly suing her for $12 million (£10.24m).
Human rights lawyer and social activist Abha Singh said the laws needed to be updated.
“(Indian) youth feel, ‘What is wrong? If you don’t want to see, turn your eyes, close your eyes. A piece of beauty is something you have to appreciate’,” she said.