India's first Playmate says she’s a pioneer
The first Indian woman to pose naked for Playboy magazine says she is proud to have pushed the envelope in a country where public nudity in any form remains largely a taboo.
Small-time Bollywood actress Sherlyn Chopra, 28, will feature in a nude spread in the November issue of the raunchy magazine, though her fans in India will be hard-pushed to get hold of a copy.
Playboy, along with a host of other foreign adult magazines, is banned in the country.
News that Chopra had become India's first Playmate caused quite a stir, fuelled by Chopra herself as she posted nude out-take pictures from the Playboy shoot on the microblog- ging site, Twitter.
Many Twitter users in the country have criticised her decision and accused her of a desperate publicity stunt to further her acting career. Sherlyn had written to Playboy herself, expressing an interest in posing.
In an e-mail interview, Chopra dismissed her critics and said she considered herself a pioneer for sexual freedom in India.
'I'm proud to have pushed the envelope and I will not hesitate to lead my life on my terms consistently,' she said.
Chopra's Bollywood career to date has been decidedly B-list, with bit roles in less than a dozen movies, including the 2003 box-office dud Dosti and a film called Naughty Boy.
Her labelling as a Bollywood legend on the Playboy website was widely mocked in India, and Chopra admitted that it was a surreal tag.
The Indian writers, actors and artistes who have sought to push the boundaries of traditional Indian morals have mostly found themselves targeted by conservative religious groups, but Chopra appeared unworried at the prospect of a backlash.
'The moral guardians have never done any real good to me or the society at large,' she said,
'So let them do whatever they are good at while I do what I truly enjoy.'