Article - Striptease? yes please

Indian television is indeed a place of contradictions. For the past few years the women on the tube have added more yards of cloth to their wardrobes.

In contrast, the men are busy shedding their clothes. Striptease is no more limited to the strip clubs and movies. And women today can indulge in some guilty pleasures as the popular leading men on telly are providing enough solace to sore eyes by shedding their shirts and in some cases even the towels!

Showcasing a totally new side to television, producers of most popular primetime shows have gone ahead and asked their leading men to put their bods on display for the huge majority of the audience which consist mostly of the female sex. Karan Singh Grover got under the shower bare-chested in "Dill Mill Gaye" and Arjun Bijlani from "Miley Jab Hum Tum" followed suit. Gurmeet Chaudhary set hearts racing as he practiced Indian martial arts and flaunted his bod in "Geet...Hui Sabse Parayee" and Amir Ali showed off his well chiseled abs in "Zara Nach Ke Dikha". Nikhil Chaddha did a Ranbir Kapoor act (a la "Saawariya" in "Miley Jab Hum Tum") and not to be left behind, Karan Tacker is all set to drop the towel too in "Rang Badalti... Odhani".

Considering that the heartland is where the TRPs come from, stripping in shows might seem taboo. But producers don't think so. "Television replicates film trends in India. When Salman, John and Ranbir can flaunt their torsos, how can their small screen counterparts lag behind?" asks producer Yash Patnaik of "Odhani..", adding, "It's all about creating the illusion of glamour and what better than making a good-looking man shed his clothes! As long as the actors don't have an issue, I am okay with it". Producer Sudhir Sharma too, voices a similar opinion. "Why should men have all the fun? Jokes apart, if the striptease comes naturally in the script, then its fine. Accommodating it forcefully is not entertainment but vulgarity. As long as audience likes it why should makers have apprehension?

And the men in question, who are busy putting their bods on display, seem to love the attention. "Male actors today have good bodies and there is nothing wrong in flaunting it. Who doesn't want good eye tonic?" says actor Arjun Bijlani. Actor Nikhil Chaddha feels that the popularity of the trend is mainly due to the changing mindset of the audience. "This new trend is a welcome change. Earlier guys would go to movie theatres to see girls wearing skimpy outfits and bikinis. But now women can sit in the comfort of their homes and watch the men strip. It's fair," quips Nikhil. Actor Karan Thacker equates men stripping on TV to women dropping their pallus! "Girls in saris and salwar kameez are asked to drop their pallus and feel all coy. Well, in this case the men are asked to drop the towel! If we can swim shirtless, there is no harm in showing off our bods," explains Karan.

The actors do not lack motivation either. "We work really hard to get those abs. If as actors we can't flaunt it, then there's no point in slogging in the gym," opines actor Gurmeet Chaudhary.
While the telly is steaming up with this major 'hunk off', the fairer sex is not complaining. After all, why should boys have all the fun?