The photos on a billboard displayed at the bustling Jemmi Chettu centre in Mogulrajpuram area scream for attention. The poster may not contain any nudity, but they are provocative and show scantily clad girls in suggestive poses.
While passing by, a group of chatty youngsters, probably in their late teens, takes an abrupt pause for a closer look. Their eyes linger on, scanning the entire image.
“Hold Your breath for the New Year Josh 2013,” announces the billboard, put up to advertise the New Year eve bash at Haailand resort theme park at Chinakakani in Mangalagiri mandal of Guntur district.
The sparsely-dressed images used to mobilise crowd to the party has raised hackles of the fairer sex in general and women organisations in particular.
Serious issue
“Obscenity is a serious issue,” admits P. Durga Bhavani, president of Andhra Pradesh Mahila Samakhya.
She says the organisation would meet and discuss its course of action on the poster issue.
Calling the poster ‘offensive’ and ‘repugnant’, city secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association Sridevi is gearing up to confront people involved in the poster display.
“While a raging debate on issues related to women’s status has engulfed the entire nation, it is a disgrace on the part of the organisers to portray woman in a bad light. It is a deliberate attempt to show a female body as an object to ogle. Moreover, use of such scantily clad girls to sell their show tickets sends a wrong signal. It drives home the point that what the female body looks like is what matters; her brains and skills don’t,” rues Anusha K., a housewife.
“When you visit the Sun Plaza in Haailand, you are greeted by a floating Buddha. The owners of the place claim that the entire resort has been developed on the theme of Buddhism. I barely find any sync between Buddhism and such skin show,” ridicules Madhavilatha.
The mood of the people in the city is by and large sombre ever since the incident of the Delhi gangrape shook the nation. Chukkapalli Sudha, a woman entrepreneur, finds it hard to digest this ‘insensitive’ portrayal of women, especially at a time when the entire nation is mourning the death of the gang-rape victim who succumbed to injuries at the end of a brave battle. “It is clearly a mindset problem,” she laments.
But Venkateswara Rao, managing director of the resort park, allows the storm of controversy take its course and says in a ‘matter-of-the-fact’ way: “Why so much fuss about the poster. If any objections are raised, we’ll remove it.”
