Bollywood star angers India with Playboy shoot

Bollywood actress Sherlyn Chopra has incensed many by becoming the first Indian woman to appear nude in Playboy. Photo / Wikimedia Commons image posted by www.filmitadka.in

A Bollywood actress has been accused of shaming her country by becoming the first Indian woman to appear nude in Playboy.

Sherlyn Chopra, 28, caused outrage after tweeting some pictures from the photoshoot which will be in the November issue. The magazine is banned in India but can be accessed on the internet.

Chopra has incensed moralists and women's rights activists in the conservative country who blame the sexualisation of women on the internet for an explosion of sexual violence across India.

She admitted she has not told her Muslim mother about the photoshoot, but told the BBC: "My sister is proud of my achievement. I haven't told anything to my mother but I think I will visit her and tell her that she has to accept me the way I am."

"People feel that I have brought shame to the country but some have encouraged me as well," she said.

Chopra said she had approached Playboy and claimed on Twitter that her late father, who was a doctor and a Christian, would have been "so proud".

But the response of many Indians has been anything but pride.

"She's not hot, she's repulsive," said one critic on Twitter.

Meanwhile, some Indian columnists have attacked Playboy's billing of Chopra as a "Bollywood legend", pointing out that she has had only minor roles.

"At a time when innocent women across the nation from Gujarat to Guwahati have been subjected to sexual abuse and humiliation, one wonders if Sherlyn Chopra's pictures wound a woman's integrity," said commentator Gayatri Sankar.

Unabashed, Chopra has hinted that her next step may be into sex films. She said India's youth "is racing towards liberalisation, and that's why being unconventional in your choices is no longer a taboo".

- DAILY MAIL