Furore over use of doctored picture
of topless Pooja Bhatt in mag
Suparn Verma
The picture of what looked like a topless Pooja Bhatt on the cover of Stardust, a magazine that concentrates on Bollywood sleaze and tattle, caused a sensation and an attendant controversy. The picture, the article claimed, came from the Internet website, bollywood.com.
Stardust faces three cases, one from Pooja Bhatt and one from Survit Varshney, who ran bollywood.com till eight months ago. Even more agitated than the parties directly affected is the Akhil Bharatiya Agnishikha Manch, an organisation which claims it is devoted to the preservation of Indian values and which finds the indecent representation of Pooja Bhatt reprehensible. It too proposes to sue Magna Publications, the publishers ofStardust.
The Manch led a morcha to Pooja Bhatt's home though the article clearly said the picture was doctored and was available on the Internet. Security guards refused the Manch activists entry to Bhatt's home.
Pooja Bhatt's father, director Mahesh Bhatt, is reportedly planning to sue Stardust and India Today who published the Stardust cover. Survit Varshney, who claimed that his site was shut down eight months ago, is also contemplating legal action against Magna Publications for dragging him into the controversy. He insists his site had never carried the picture.
ABAM spokesperson Devendra Pandey, says, "We sent four of our workers to Pooja's house to ask her about this cover, but she refused to talk to them and the watchman was told not to let us in." So the next day the Manch staged a morcha.
Asked whether he had read the article before leading a morcha, Pandey said, "Tell me, how many people will even read the article? The magazine is hanging outside every stall. People will just see the cover and say, 'My god, two years ago she posed in her birthday suit and now she is topless.'
"It does not make any difference to us what the story said. Even if the story said that the photograph was not Pooja Bhatt's, we wanted her to clarify it. We wanted her to tell her that it was not her snap and that she had not posed for the photograph."
 The ABAM also tried to get Pooja Bhatt to sign a statement. "Since Pooja is the victim, we wanted her to join hands with us and take Stardust to task," says Pandey.
Demands Mahesh Bhatt, "Why should we join hands with them? They have their own agenda to fight for. Why should we help them? If we have to fight we will fight alone."
The Manch also attacked Mahesh Bhatt, claiming that "he, being a father, is unable to protect his daughter's dignity. We said, 'If you cannot do it, we will do it'."
"I want to ask Alka Pandey (the ABAM president) when did god whisper in her ear that she is the chosen one. How does she have the audacity to presume that she will take on the burden of safe guarding fast-eroding values? I don't understand the attitude of the Agnishikha Manch. We are the victims and they start to victimise us, says Mahesh Bhatt. "We are waiting for the report from the police to arrive, then we will discuss our future course of action."
Adds the director, "Today mankind needs to be saved from the saviours of mankind."
Stardust editorial director Ashwin Varde thinks the picture raised a serious issue even if the magazine did not take Pooja Bhatt's permission before using it. "We think it's our duty to expose the misuse of the Internet. You see there have been some articles in the past about pornography on the Net, but how many of them were able to create an impact? When you put something on the cover you are asking for attention. We wanted to raise a debate on the issue."
 Varde dismisses the ABAM. "It is a very small group I don't want to even talk about it because that would mean giving it free publicity." What worries him is that a "serious party" like the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Jayawantiben Mehta, the south Bombay MP, staged a morcha without even reading the article.
"We waited for a month before we put the snap on the cover," says Varde. "But Pooja was in Canada at that time, so we could not take her permission."
The Stardust article suggested the Internet is being grossly misused and included quotes from local policemen expressing regret at the ways of the world. It went on to say there were pictures of other Indian actresses on the Net, including Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen, and how shocking it all was.
Meanwhile, the Manch has moved the office of state Minister of Culture Pramod Navalkar and got all copies of the offending issue removed from the stalls. The floppy on which the picture was downloaded has been confiscated by the police. The joint commissioner of police called the affected parties to his office and discussed the matter. Pooja Bhatt's name has been cleared since even Stardust admitted the actress had not posed topless and that the picture used was a doctored one.
 Says Varde, "Some political parties and other vested interests accused us of tampering with the snap. But when we held a press conference and showed the other newsmen that the snap still existed on the Net, we were able to dispel that doubt. We had downloaded the snap 4-5 months ago from the site, which is no longer on the Internet, though now you hear about all kinds of addresses where this snap can be found."
Varde says he understands Pooja Bhatt's position. "Just because she is not responding to what has happened, they (the ABAM) are alleging that Pooja is hands in glove with us. So, if she is planing to file a case against us, I completely understand her position."
"It's a no win situation for us," he smiles.
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