Mia Malkova’s Director Facing Anti-Porn Criminal Charges

CYBERSPACE—In January, Mia Malkova released a new film, but this one, God, Sex and Truth, was perhaps better described as an art film rather than an adult movie. Nonetheless, Malkova’s director on the controversial film is now reportedly facing arrest and possible imprisonment in his home country of India for his role in shooting the project starring AVN's 2014 Best New Starlet. Ram Gopal Varma, a maverick, 55-year-old Bollywood director, claimed that he filmed Malkova, who appears nude throughout the film, somewhere in Europe. But according to media reports in the Indian press, Varma may have actually shot the movie in a luxury hotel located in his hometown of Hyderabad, a bustling metropolis in southern India with a population nearing 10 million. If indeed Varma shot the Malkova starrer there, he would indeed be facing legal trouble because producing porn in India is illegal.  A coalition of women’s rights groups in India, spearheaded by the All India Democratic Women Association has become so certain that Varma shot the film in Hyderabad that starting on Wednesday, they staged a 48-hour hunger strike to demand the filmmaker’s arrest. Their efforts appear to have ben successful. According to a report in The Hindu newspaper, police filed charges against Varma, the first step before arresting the controversial director. If the allegations prove true, not only Varma but managers at the hotel where the “docu-drama” was allegedly filmed could be looking at prison sentences. The women’s rights activists say that they have photographic evidence showing Malkova in Hyderabad during the time when the film, whose full title is God, Sex and Truth:  A Philosophical Treatise of Mia Malkova, would have been shot. They also say that behind-the-scenes production still from the film have appeared on line, and that several known filmmaking associates of Varma can be seen in those photos. In January, before the film was even released, women’s groups staged protests against the film, burning Varma in effigy during one demonstration in which they called for God, Sex and Truth to be banned in India. "What was the message Varma would be giving to the youth in India with his dirty film?” one protest leader,  K. Nagalakshmi, said to the India Today news site. In response to the possible criminal charges against him, Varma posted a message on his Twitter account—saying that he had no comment. Varma responded to reports that he was under criminal investigation, in a Wednesday Twitter posting. “It’s baseless false propaganda by Tv 9 that I was called by (Central Criminal Station) on Friday the 23rd,” he wrote on his Twitter feed. “In reality that is not true at all and it’s just a part of a malicious campaign by Tv 9 to spread lies about me.” Varma reportedly faces charges of obscenity and “insulting the modesty of a woman.”