Keep the white girls out

MNS demands a ban on firang item girls. Bollywood is not amused.

Dance with our own girls... Marathi girls,” is what Raj Thackeray’s MNS now says, objecting to firang item girls in Bollywood. The industry is reacting with disbelief and disdain to the new diktat, after MNS workers disrupted shooting of filmmaker Ritesh Sidhwani’s Crooked on Sunday.

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“Ridiculous,” says filmamker Goldie Behl and adds, “We have the freedom to employ whoever we think is best for the job, no matter where they are from.”
While MNS leader Shalini Thackeray explains the reasons for protest as “the foreigner girls not having valid work permits,” industrywallahs ask if they are making rules in our country.

“I am confused. I need to know who the real law enforcement agents of my country are,” says item girl Sherlyn Chopra.

HT City contacted many foreign actresses doing item numbers in Bollywood films, but they all chose to stay mum, citing it’s “too risky” to speak against MNS.

“I would not like to give a comment on this,” said Jacqueline Fernandes, who worked in Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Aladin. “You can not tell a novelist not to feature foreigners in his novel, can you? How can you tell filmmakers not to cast foreigners,” asks filmmaker Pritish Nandy.

While everyone in Bollywood seemed to be united on the view, India’s very own item queen Rakhi Sawant has a different take. “I welcome this step by the MNS. In foreigner ladkiyon ki wajah se hum Hindustani ladkiyon ko ghar mein bethna padta hai. Yahaan par sab gori chamdi ki gulaami karte hain. Ye foreigner ladkiyan lollypop hain lekin sirf do din ki lollypop.” (Because of these foreigners, our Indian girls remain jobless. These white girls are like lollypops that only last for two days).