Apurva Asrani Defends His Stance On Nudity

On actor Milind Soman’s  55^th birthday  earlier this week  writer-filmmaker Apurva Asrani raised the  issue of  double standards regarding male  and female nudity.  

Apurva said, “#PoonamPandey & #MilindSoman both stripped down to their birthday suits in #Goa recently.Pandey partly, Soman completely. Pandey is in legal trouble–for obscenity. Soman is being lauded for his fit body at age 55. I guess we are kinder to our nude men than to our nude women.”

When I counter-questioned Apurva  on the  intentions and  aesthetics  of  the two cases, with one being a habitual attention-seeker and the other a far more sincere and responsible  citizen, Apurva retorted, “ Who decides intention and aesthetics? Left to the public, the definition could vary immensely. A women’s group affiliated to a political party thought Poonam’s  shoot was obscene, and that it defames women from the state in general. I disagree with these reasons. On the other hand, Milind running fully in the buff didn’t offend me either.”

  Apurva  admits he  has  no problem  with  either Pandey  or Soman going nude,  “Both have attractive bodies and   both wanted the public to see the bodies they worked hard on. I think we have a separate set of standards for what men can do and what women can do.”

 Apurva recalls  a similar public outrage when  Protima  Bedi had streaked in  1974. “There were women’s groups that took umbrage to her running naked on Juhu beach too.Women are called sluts if they go nude. Men are not. Actresses who go nude are branded ‘sex sirens’ for life and rarely reach the pedestals that the Madhuris and Sridevisdo.Even in  cinema,men get away with sex scenes and hairy chest titillation without a question. Let’s face  it. We are a sexist society.”