A smiling young man with boyish charm gives followers of this bus from Varkala a thumbs-up. He’s painted on the back, and as you move in a little to overtake, you see other more familiar faces — all bright and bold artwork on the side.
The garish (some would say kitschy) paintings of current and former stars from the adult entertainment industry on the AC ‘tour’ bus rode into fame after a Twitter user posted its pictures on social media recently. Chikkoos Tours & Travels, the operators, who previously ran buses featuring themes on Hollywood, superhero characters or computer games, decided to take it a step further this time, after being “inspired by the antics of college students”.
The idea
Sherin, the proprietor of the travel company, says he was “both amused and annoyed” when college students would put up cloth banners bearing spoofy pictures of adult stars and catchy one-liners when they hired his services. “My only mild objection was that these fixtures would block the name and contact details of my company written on the back of the bus and this might affect our work orders. That’s when I felt I could simply get the exteriors painted in a manner that caters to the quirks of college students,” says the 28-year-old from Varkala. However, instead of opting for wallpapers, Sherin and his team roped in his friend and caricature artist Ratheesh Kallettumkara from Thrissur for the paint job, and the air-brush artwork was completed in 20 days. Keiran Lee, Jordi, Johnny Sins, Ava Addams, Mia Malkova, Aletta Ocean and former adult stars Sunny Leone and Mia Khalifa, all pout at you as the vehicle zips past. The social media buzz reached far and wide when the verified Twitter handle of Johnny Sins re-tweeted photos of the bus along with the response “Impressive”. The interiors of the bus have been left untouched. After all, one does need one’s sleep.
The tour bus with artwork featuring adult stars
Marriage runs
Sherin says though the painted bus was introduced only over two weeks ago, the idea had been brewing in his mind for “over five months”. Though the “main target” is college students, the “off-season” has so far kept out his intended clientèle. Ironically, “So far, it has been hired for two marriage runs. But mostly, only those below 30 recognise the faces. Although several elderly people and women travel in the bus, most did not seem to catch the drift,” says Sherin, while quickly adding with a chuckle “or maybe they pretended not to.” For the young, it’s a selfie site.
Sherin dismisses the presumption that his idea is “low art” for cheap publicity. “People would assume the pictures are mere stickers. But, in fact, a lot of meticulous work involving precise measurements went into the paintings. Full kudos to Ratheesh for the artwork. As far as I know, there are no rules against depicting photos of adult stars, as long as you don’t breach the limits of decency. If we can portray any celebrity from any other field with impunity, why not porn stars?” asks Sherin. He’s not going to be put down by the moral police (and funnily enough, he hasn’t received any). After all, it really is just “light-hearted mischief”.
