Vinita Dixit wants to pose nude. No coer- cion, no blackmail, no gimmicks. She sees it simply as a way of making an honest living. Her figure she’s been told by photographers, is good. A centrespread in The Indian magazine Debonair last year, proved it. There’s just one flaw. Her face is not beautiful.
That has not stopped Vinita, 24, from getting assignments in major ‘adult’ magazines like Debonair, Chastity and Fantasy. "I want to model in adfilms but don’t know how to go about it" says the middle class woman, who dreams of going places in the show-biz world. But there are very few places left to go in the entertainment industry once an average-looking girl has ‘bared all’.
Women who are splashed across doublespreads of adult magazines, in various stages of undress, are at the risk of getting branded. The popular misconception is that any woman willing to expose herself in front of a camera is of easy virtue.
Professional models generally stay away from adult magazines even though they have no hesitation in appearing semiclad in advertisements or on the covers of women’s magazines. "There is a massive shortage of professional models in this field," says Randhir Khare, editor of Debonair".
Khare traces the reason to wider options. Earlier there were only a few avenues for models in the beauty business - not many fashion shows, not much demand in advertising.
"The options were restricted to films and magazines," says Khare. "It did not affect the reputation of a model at all if she posed nude for Debonair" With the television boom there has been a phenomenal increase in opportunities in modelling and acting. There is a market for everybody and one can earn much more as a film extra than as a nude model.
Besides,
there is fear. Police crackdowns, particularly in Mumbai, have made people
associated with adult magazines, extremely nervous. Khare, for instance, is
routinely hauled to the police station; on last count there were 13 criminal
cases against him for obscenity. Editors of Chastity and Fantasy keep a low
profile and are difficult to reach.
It is a sleazy world behind the pricey magazines in sealed polythene covers. Scratch the smooth surface, and one encounters shifty-eyed characters who exploit the naive models in the name of glamour photography. They are the middlemen who pass off as model coordinators.
The editors usually leave the job of choosing the model to the photographers, who in turn are dependent on the coordinators. Dreamy-eyed girls who land in Mumbai from all over the country chasing fame and fortune seek out the coordinators, who are apparently a breed apart from the coordinators who interact with reputed advertising agencies. For the models the main motivation is money but women from a wide spectrum have posed nude, some just for the heck of it.
Often it is a question of how trust-worthy the photographer is. Rich, smart, beautiful working women may figure occasionally in the gatefolds of adult magazines but most models are there out of sheer desperation. Often they face situations compelling them to jump into bed with the middlemen or the photographers. "Ninety per cent of the women in television, films and modelling have to ‘compromise.
An aspiring model first has to get a portfolio of photographs shot by a professional - all future assignments depend on that. Even an ordinary lensman charges more than Rs 8,000 for a complete portfolio.
The photographer sells the pictures to the magazines or the coordinators but the girls still may not get any assignment. They again have to shed their clothes, to live on in Mumbai. The money is nothing to write home about: it is Rs 5,000 for a centrespread on an average; even the best models get only Rs 10,000.
The lucky ones may get into television serials but most others end up as extras in films. Another option is posing for undergarments; very few like it for fear of their relatives and friends noticing the ads. They think that posing for the centrespreads is safer because their family and friends never buy magazines like Debonair.
Salma Ahmed (22) found out the hard way just how risky it was. The eldest of four girls and three boys, Salma had been working since the age of 16 to supplement her father’s paltry monthly income of Rs 1,700. Two years ago she tried to persuade her friend, who had just done a centrespread for Debonair, not to repeat her folly. A few months later she was herself doing it. "We were badly in need of money. We could barely manage one meal a day," says Salma in chaste Hindi.
She was offered Rs 3,000 for a centrespread by Deepak Bhagat. "That was a big amount for me and there was a sudden crisis at home," she recalls. Reliving the photo shoot makes her cringe even now.
While Salma wants to warn aspiring nude models to think about the consequences, Vinita Dixit is all for freedom of choice. The daughter of a retired LIC employee, she was working as a receptionist in a Colaba Mumbai hotel when a former colleague who had become a coordinator told her that she had a future in modelling.
She was taken to a photographer, who shot her with her shirt partly open. "I was paid Rs 400 for just two hours of posing. Then only I realised how much money there was in this field," says Vinita naively. She contacted photographers listed in the yellow pages and finally made it to a Debonair centrespread. "I did feel shy to remove my clothes," she recalls. "I was very scared but the photographer and his assistants didn’t even touch me. They made me feel very comfortable." ill frowned upon. Adult magazines are still read furtively even by adults. Editors like Bindra are, however, confident that magazines like Chastity will one day achieve the class and status of their American counterparts like Playboy.
- The Week
‘Adult Magazines’ are a decent term to describe pornography, one might say. In Sri Lanka adult magazines published for public circulation are unheard of, unlike in neighbouring India. Here there are only those published under strict secrecy and obtainable only from certain parties. Such magazines fall into the category of pornographic material and are not registered publications. But the Sri Lankan attitude itself towards these so called adult magazines is hypocritical. While a majority of males read these magazines, society itself is waiting to pass its judgment on those who appear in such lurid magazines.
What makes Lankan women bare their bodies in such magazines? As one editor of a tabloid pointed out there are girls who voluntarily send their nude photographs to be published. Veteran photographer Mahinda Fernando’s opinion is that most girls are willing to pose nude as they consider it a launching pad for better prospects. They dream of a bright future as an actress or a model just because they are featured on the cover or centre spread. As for girls being exploited, he said that as a photographer he did not look at it in a derogatory way. It all depends on the manner in which society interprets it, he says.
"It is my experience that most girls who volunteer to pose in revealing postures are from lower middle class families. In Sri Lanka I don’t think girls are paid for modelling even in newspapers and magazines. When I was attached to the Times of Ceylon, a friend introduced a girl who volunteered to pose for the Times of Ceylon Annual. I don’t think I even paid her. I’m not aware of the situation today as I’m involved in bridal photography."
Unlike the American Play Boy or the Indian Chastity and Fantasy magazines, in Sri Lanka the so called adult magazines are of low quality. The photographers themselves do not like to be identified. The photographers rarely pay any detail to background, lighting or the pose. .Models can be clad in silk or immersed in water to strike a suggestive pose. However in local magazines the girls simply strike any pose, revealing their breasts etc. When the publishers get these photographs they do an equally cheap job by trying to cover certain parts of the body.
According to a photographer who did not want to be identified, Sri Lankan girls willing to pose nude do not look for money. They seek fame and fortune, expecting their faces to be captured by a film maker. "Girls are waiting for their faces to be launched on a magazine. But the number of magazines in Sri Lanka are limited and the photographers of such magazines look for professional models and beauties. As such the chances our aspiring girls have are limited. Thus they go to the extent of even revealing their bodies just to get their faces onto a mag. This enables photographers to exploit girls."
Chandi Rasika, a popular actress whom we have seen in daring postures admitted there was a time when she gave into photographers through naivity. She tried to be daring, but ended up receiving a heap of criticism.
"I used to be immature and allowed photographers to exploit me. Even today there are photographers who are waiting for a chance to make use of you. Recently a photographer who promised to take a photograph of my face and upper body, ended up taking photographs of my legs from different angles. This photographer didn’t even have the courtesy of showing me the photographs. I consider such acts as cheating."
Today as an adult Chandi Rasika is conscious of what her family thinks. She still regrets an incident that happened eight years ago.
"I posed for a film mag though my brother protested and reprimanded me. I did not speak to him after that and three months after the photographs appeared he passed away. I still haven’t forgiven myself over this unfortunate incident."
Although Chandi Rasika is careful about how she poses, there are others who do not share her ideas. Sumana Gomez doesn’t think that girls who pose nude are exploited. As models and actresses she emphasised that they must be willing to strike any pose.
"If you have a nice body, there’s nothing wrong in showing it off. Of course Sri Lanka is one country where girls who pose nude are not well paid" she said.
Bombay is in the grip of a sweltering sum mer. The streets are dusty. The trees look withered and forlorn - just thirsting for a cool shower of rain. Even the vegetables at the open market close to our home look tired.
Bombayites (or should I say Mumbaites, now that the name has been changed to Mumbai) look slightly shrivelled. The amazing thing is that not one of them uses an umbrella to protect themselves from the blistering heat. Some of them do wear caps or hats, but this whole summer, which began in March and is expected to end this month, I have still not spotted an umbrella.
They tell me that as soon as the monsoon with its gusts of strong winds and lashing rain is over, all the umbrellas are put away until the next monsoon.
For instance, we had a hard time looking for a children’s umbrella for my daughter just before her fourth birthday last April. She had wanted one but there was none to find.
Finally after much searching, we tracked down some umbrellas at one shop in the town we live in. Even then the shopkeeper was amazed at our request - which made me wonder why he had them displayed in the first place.
Whenever I carry my umbrella to the market, the shopkeepers, the tea vendors, the fishmongers, the motorists and the passers-by look at me in horror - as if I had lost my mind.
Those in a shop from which we buy our provisions smile knowingly. I’m sure they discuss the strange behaviour of this foreigner, once I’ve bought my purchases and left.
Summer is also the time when schools close for three months and children run riot. Rich parents pay large sums of money to send their children to summer camps held in exotic places across India. The less affluent children play cricket on roads or tiny compounds which surround apartment blocks that dot the city.
The newspapers are full of advertisements on vacation sports and cut-rate air fares not only to destinations within India but also abroad - where many rich kids go. Goa, on the country’s west coast, with its waving palm fronds and sun kissed beaches beckons, some Bombayites, while Mahableshwar, called ‘strawberry country’ and near Bombay, lures others.
It is also that time of the year when fizz giants flood the market with mega bottles of soft drinks and ice cream sales boom. And what exotic ice cream flavours they have in Bombay - after you try the ‘tender coconut’ you feel you have tasted the food of gods.
Strawberries herald the coming of summer. In March-April red, succulent strawberries abound. Boxes and boxes of strawberries are kept at street corners and near traffic lights to tempt all and sundry.
As summer advances, fruit stalls mushroom every few yards, stacked with luscious yellow managoes, rosy apples, oranges, lemons, sweet lime, pomegranates and both green and purple grapes. The sizes of the mouth-watering mangoes called Alphonso or Apos are unbelievable and they are sold in dozens, with small crates consisting of four dozen being hawked from door-to-door. The other favourite fruit of the Bombayite is the thal (palmyrah) fruit.
The other day I saw an artistic fruit-seller carving an intricate flower from a piece of pineapple to decorate the plates of fruit slices he had for sale. These vendors keep the fruit flies away by sticking lit jos-sticks (handunkuru) on their carts.
The plate of fruit is topped off with a tall glass of fruit juice, the most common being cane juice - from wayside crushing machines laced with ginger, and a dash of lime and an ice cube. But don’t ask from where the ice is. Hepatitis, typhoid and other water-borne diseases are rampant in Bombay but residents sometimes don’t care.
TREVOR LaBrooy may now spend much of his retired life in Logan City suburbia, but the adventurer once wrestled crocodiles and hunted man-eating leopards in the lush jungles of his native Sri Lanka.
After more than three decades in Australia - most of them spent working with Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and on North Queensland islands - Trevor has finally set pen to paper and recorded some of his most memorable jungle experiences.
The result is ‘Jungle, Lure’, a beautifully presented collection of nine true-life tales. Recounting a forgotten world in a small island country then known as Ceylon. The self-published book is already proving popular with readers of all ages and from all walks of life.
Featuring 32 line drawings, 24 historical photos and four maps, Jungle Lure is an exciting read. The prose is comfortably conversational and the stories covering a period from 1936 to 1964, are at once fascinating, entertaining and enthralling.
Born in Ceylon of Dutch and English origin, Trevor, now 68, spent his youth on a rubber plantation learning from a young age how to handle a gun. His exploits as he grew to manhood led to him being affectionately nicknamed "Ceylon’s Jungle Jim," a title which continues to please him.
Included in Jungle Lure are accounts of how Trevor survived being lost in the jungle for three days without water, how as an eight-year-old he enticed two cobras to wrap around his arms (much to the horror of his parents!), and many event-filled hunting trips.
Two of his greatest trophies are a never-before-seen black leopard (the mounted trophy is still the only one to be found in the world)
as well as the largest leopard on record.
In these days of threatened species, Trevor is quick to point out that he is an advocate of conservation, explaining that the world in which his exploits took place was very different from the one in which he lives today.
"Our hunting was never wanton destruction - we did not just hunt to kill", he explains, describing how heartbroken he was to return to Sri Lanka in 1983 - only to find much of the jungle of his childhood destroyed. His reverence and respect for the jungle and its animals are clearly evident in Jungle Lure.
Trevor, who also paints and has published a volume of poetry, recently travelled to Africa on safari, where the only wildlife he shot was on film. (Albert & Logan News)
(Jungle Lure is now on sale in Sri Lanka at Lake House Bookshop)
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