HC upholds painting Bengali actor Paoli Dam blue

The Calcutta high court upheld on Tuesday the state censor board’s diktat to cover the posters revealing Bengali actor Paoli Dam’s bare back in her debut Hindi film, Hate Story. HT reports.

The Calcutta high court upheld on Tuesday the state censor board’s diktat to cover the posters revealing Bengali actor Paoli Dam’s bare back in her debut Hindi film, Hate Story.

Earlier, the West Bengal Board of Censorship ordered the film’s regional distributors not to display the posters on Kolkata streets, although there was no opposition from other state censor boards.

The state government has ordered that the actor’s bare back be painted blue — a much darker shade than the enamel blue used by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s government to paint Kolkata. This comes at a time when she is facing criticism over intolerance.

Paoli Dam's controversial Hate Story poster

The state censor board has banned two of the film’s posters, the one with Dam’s bare back and another where she is in “a compromising position”, but cleared six others with the blue blackout rider.

According to state advocate general Anindya Mitra, though adults have the right to watch adult movies, minors will also watch them when obscene pictures are displayed. “That will have a bad impact on their minds.”

Dam, a sensation in the Bengali film industry, made headlines last year after appearing in a Sri Lankan film, Mushroom, in which she had a four-minute scene depicting oral sex.