Pooja Bhatt's new film "Jism 2", which stars adult-movie star Sunny Leone, is faced with a new controversy, after posters of the movie were removed from BEST buses, bus depots and all electricity poles in Mumbai for being "too hot".
The posters were considered "too hot to handle" by Mumbai civic authorities. National Congress Party MLC Vidya Chavan deemed the display as offensive and complained to the Mayor Mumbai Sunil Prabhu and the commissioner of the BMC, the city's municipal corporation, to remove the posters.
Following the complaint Prabhu raised the issue with BEST and BMC officials, and by Wednesday evening every "objectionable" poster was removed from 75 BEST buses, 25 bus depots and from all electricity poles, The Times of India said.
"We received a complaint from Chavan, who alleged that the posters were obscene. I have asked BEST general manager to remove such posters from BEST buses," Prabhu said.
BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte also confirmed to NDTV that the posters were removed after Chavan issued a complaint.
The poster features an almost nude lady lying covered with a transparent sheet of wet cloth.
The officials' quick act of ripping the posters off public property drew criticism from the Bollywood fraternity.
Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who is Pooja's father, told The Times Of India that "it was a battle not worth fighting".
"Censoring images created by the human mind has been going on since the dark ages. In recent times, I remember Qurban's posters were pulled down by the moral police. I guess the more things change, the more they remain the same. Individual freedom has always been trampled upon under the name of larger good by the political class," he added.
