SEXY?

Mona Singh and Aamna Shariff versus Eva Longoria and Jennifer Aniston? Can our desi TV stars match their sexy western counterparts?

SEXY? Never! That could well be the incredulous exclamation of our desi TV stars. While Hollywood TV stars thrive on polls like the recent one which put Desperate Housewives' star Eva Longoria on the top of the sexy TV stars heap, there's little chance of that happening here.

Longoria, who plays former runway model and bored housewife Gabrielle Solis on Desperate Housewives combines a devil--maycare attitude with an array of sexy, smart outfits, lingerie and shoes. At number two on the polls comes Friends' star Jennifer Aniston, who plays the stunning if ditzy Rachel. At number three comes Kim Catrall, the lovestarved Samantha in Sex and the City. Can the Indian scenario match up?

"Indian TV stars and sexy?" exclaims style professional Gauri Kapur, "I relate television serials with Kyunki Saas Bhi... and that's nowhere near sexy!" Gauri only occasionally watches episodes of desi soaps, but admits that things have improved, stylistically speaking. But there's still a way to go, she adds. "Aamna Shariff as Kashish is very pretty, but she should be allowed to look more real. Her makeup is quite over the top," she says. In Jassi... the heroine's makeover lacked pizzazz, she feels. "Her look improved, but much more could have been done to make her look attractive."

Entrepreneur Nandita Shah puts it all down to the lack of reality in our serials. "Indian serials are so fake. Stories like Kyunki Saas... don't exist in reality — the perfect wife, always in sarees and bindis. So where would the sexiness come in?" But she acknowledges that there are attractive female actors in many of them. "Kashish in Kahin To Hoga is beautiful and sensuous." But the sensuality is far removed from the overt, in--your--face sexiness of western actors.

It's the realism of the characters which make them attractive to viewers, asserts Gauri. That's the reason Jassi's ugly--duckling--turnsswan acts struck such a chord with followers of the serial. "She's the girl next door, but still has appeal," she says.

Hotelier Aslam Gafoor agrees. "Jassi's Mona Singh has turned out quite eye--catching after her transformation," he says. Indian serials are also getting more realistic, and so its actors are also getting more appealing. "But it's all within the Indian perspective," he adds. The attractiveness should be Indian, keeping the desi ethos in mind. "There shouldn't be a blind aping of the west. Otherwise there's no differentiator."
ruma02@indiatimes.com