Vidya Balan's fake two-piece pics surface: The last time we chatted with Vidya Balan, the actress seemed very nonchalant about the gossip fodder that saw her as its central character.
“These things don’t bother me anymore,” were her famous words, which have probably come back to haunt the Bollywood starlet, who is currently the victim of a fake photoshoot that sees her donning a teeny, weeny, black bikini.
Needless to say, the “Dirty Picture” actress is quite miffed and has threatened to “take legal action against the people responsible behind this.”Balan is the latest in a long line of Bollywood celebrities who have been targeted with morphed images of them hitting the internet.
Last year, saw thespian Shatrughan Sinha’s daughter, Sonakshi Sinha, was victimised in a similar way when morphed pictures of the young actress in a yellow bikini started to make rounds over the World Wide Web and was even reported in news magazine, “India Today”.
The “Dabangg” star didn’t waste time and took to microblogging site Twitter immediately to clarify the situation, tweeting: “Very surprised to see India Today an article about me that appears in Maxim in a bikini! Yeah right.
She added: “These guys usually have their facts and figures on the right! You got that right I’m Maxim, but the figure (pun intended) completely wrong! Would have been smarter if the magazine is checked before writing what felt. It is not about me anymore, but his credibility [sic].
Interestingly, both Sinha’s and now Balan’s images have found their way onto the cover of popular men’s magazine, “Maxim”.
While Sinha shouted from the rooftops that her swimsuit image was fake, the lack of credibility of Balan’s bikini image is a bit more obvious considering the issue month of the cover shoots states August 2011, which is hardly possible in the month of March.
Celebrity pitfalls: Balan and Sinha are not the first and will hardly be the last Bollywood celebrities to be victimised by fake images. Some of the earliest cases goes back to 2006, when South Indian superstar Khushboo wound her in the pages of “Maxim” donning a semi-transparent bikini.
Naturally, the buxom actress was furious and sued the magazine for Rs30 million, even though the editorial board tendered an apology for their tongue-n-cheek shoot that saw a bikini-clad woman, with Khusbhoo’s morphed face, admiring herself in a mirror, with a quote stating: “Of course I am a virgin, if you don’t count from b*****.”
While the outcome of the court case is sketchy, a few years later Celina Jaitley found herself victimised when indecent images of her found their way on a Bollywood gossip website and a gadgets blog. The actress filed a legal case against the two. Small time starlet Riya Sen has also had her share of notoriety.
If its not her images, which have wound their way on a UAE single’ dating website, then its an MMS scandal that saw her and former boyfriend Ashmit Patel in compromising poses.
MMS mania: In fact, MMS is usually the popular choice for ousting and scandlising celebrities in India. After Sen’s clip gained cult status a few years ago, over the years an Aishwarya Rai Bachchan lookalike has appeared in a few MMS videos nude and in compromising positions. Other similar victims include Preity Zinta, Mallaika Sherawat and Katrina Kaif. But perhaps the most popular one of late was the Soha Ali Khan MMS that allegedly saw a hidden camera shoot her bikini wax session.
Manning up: And of course, actresses alone aren’t the only one singled out. Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who has long been questioned over his alleged swinging sexual preferences, found himself in a doctored image kissing a man. Who says girls have all the fun, eh Mr Khan.
