SEXY TEASERS

Those who goggled and gaped at the bare-all cover pics of Veena Malik on the cover of a magazine were surprised to learn that the Pakistani sex-bomb claimed she hadn’t posed for the pic at all and that the photos had been morphed!

Amidst news that Veena was suing the magazine for ten crore rupees, allegations and counter-allegations swirled around, with everyone who had an opinion getting into the act.

Which reminds us of an earlier, similar incident. Even as fans grabbed an eyeful of a topless Kajal Aggarwal on the cover of (not-so-coincidentally?) the same magazine, as she barely managed to cover her modesty with her arms, came news that the photos had been morphed.

But Kajal didn’t protest too much and there were many who felt that there had been collusion. Before the pictures, Kajal was perceived as just another fledgling starlet down south, making her way into Bollywood. Could the risqué photoshoot have been a part of a well-calculated plan?

Chances are no one will know for sure. Kajal’s popularity did get a big boost after the pics. In Veena’s case, she was already famous, but then she’s a known publicity hunter.

The kind of attention that Veena has garnered, especially with ISI tattooed on her arm in the picture, has been unprecedented. While the international media has gone berserk with tales of who is suing whom, Veena is now a household name in India.

Fashion photographer Karthik Srinivasan, cynically shreds the veneer of glitz and glamour when he says, “This is not exploitative. It’s a publicity stunt that could possibly have both parties involved. A stunt like this assures an actress of fame within minutes and the magazine gets its mileage too. Everyone is aware of what they are getting into.”

It can’t be denied that a magazine does gain some popularity out of such a stunt. But does an international magazine need to stoop to this, that too twice in a row?

Actress Janani Iyer of Avan Ivan fame has read of both the morphing incidents and believes, “No actress desires such infamy. I know of actresses constantly coming across their morphed pictures online and I understand how infuriating it is. To objectify women and exploit them for a few bucks is certainly unethical.”

Ad man Prahlad Kakkar looks at the whole brouhaha as an invasion of a person’s privacy. “In this male-dominated world, the woman only has the vestiges of dignity to hold on to. Even that is robbed when you invade her space and expose her in such a manner in the public domain.”

The celebrated ad man adds, “Not all publicity is good publicity. Not everyone can be a Rakhi Sawant!”