Bollywood Actress Called ‘Porn Star’ for Netflix Nudity

CYBERSPACE—Veteran Bollywood actress Rajshri Deshpande has been part of censorship controversies in India before, in a country responsible for 20 percent of the world’s film censorship cases in 2017. Deshpande starred in 2017’s hit drama Sexy Durga, which not only came under the censor’s scissors, but even had its title altered by the country’s official movie censorship board—ultimately released in India under the nonsensical title S Durga. But while India’s movie censors would likely never allow an actress to bare her breasts on screen, Deshpande does just that, albeit briefly, in the new and widely acclaimed Netflix gangster epic series Sacred Games. As a result, Deshpande told The Indian Express newspaper, she has been the target of online abuse, including messages branding her a “porn star.” “It was a big thing for me to open up my blouse, but I did it,” she said. “But little did I know that my pictures from that scene will start circulating on WhatsApp. Collages have been made saying: Hot Indian Actress With Mangalsutra! And, the scene has made way to porn sites.” (A mangalsutra is a traditional Hindu marriage necklace, worn by a bride for life, or until the death of her husband.) As Netflix, which currently has just five million Indian subscribers—compared to 75 million for the domestic, 21st Century Fox-owned streaming service Hotstar—makes a push for growth in the Indian market, the edgy crime thriller Sacred Games is the service’s first original series for Indian audiences. But under Indian laws, online content is not subject to the same censorship rules as films and broadcast TV, allowing Netflix to get away with scenes of sex, violence and brief partial nudity. The lax censorship rules for online content mean that India was able to become the third most active porn-watching country in the world last year, according to PornHub stats, even though producing porn is illegal in the country. But thanks to Deshpande’s brief topless scene and several other scenes deemed “offensive” by Indians who object to the show, including one prominent politician, a lawsuit over Sacred Games is head to the Delhi High Court, as the site Decider has reported. The suit asks that the court order those scenes deleted from the series—including remarks made by show’s central character, a ruthless Mumbai gangster, insulting former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. In one snippet of dialogue, the character refers to Gandhi as fattu, which can translate as “coward”—or as the Netflix subtitles render the word, “pussy.” The court battle could prove important for Netflix, which already has two more series in the works for the Indian audience. In August, the streaming service will release Ghoul, its “first Indian original horror series,” co-produced by Blumhouse Productions, the company behind the Paranormal Activity series. Photo via Netflix