Model-actor Milind Soman, who was recently booked for obscenity after he posted a nude picture of himself, has reacted to the backlash he received on social media.
In an interview with Hindustan Times, Soman addressed the controversy that the trailer of 'Paurashpur' courted for its erotic scenes. The actor, who's awaiting the release of the ALTBalaji series, said that the line between art, vulgarity and obscenity is subjective and changes everyday.
Speaking about his controversial nude picture, Soman said, "Today, the internet is there. Like, when someone tells me, ‘Oh, you uploaded a naked picture!’ Yes, uploaded where? On Instagram, which has not removed it, so they don’t care. If you search #naked on Instagram, there will be more than 10 million photographs. So, you have to decide. You hashtagged naked and pressed the search button, that is your choice. If you don’t do it, you won’t see it."
"If you know someone who has done naked photography before, he is quite likely to do it again. Why not? Because he doesn’t see anything wrong with it. I have done it commercially, for magazines, for newspapers, I have done it as a model, as an actor, I have done sex scenes. Why wouldn’t I put it on my Instagram page? If you don’t want to follow me, don’t follow me," he added.
"Some people said, ‘My mother is on Instagram.’ I said, ‘Yes, so she shouldn’t open certain pages.’ Last week, Jennifer Lopez put up a naked picture on her 50th birthday. On Instagram. What do people have to say about that?" the 'Four More Shots Please!' actor asked.
For the unversed, last month, the South Goa district police booked model-actor Milind Soman for obscenity, after a nude photograph of the former supermodel taken while running on a Goa beach went viral.
On November 4, Soman had uploaded a photo on Twitter showing him running nude on a Goa beach on his 55th birthday with the caption, "Happy birthday to me Y...55 and running ! Y". @5Earthy."
On the work front, Soman's erotic period drama web series 'Paurashpur' features Annu Kapoor, Shilpa Shinde, Shaheer Sheikh, Flora Saini, Anant Joshi and Sahil Salathia, among others. It is directed by Sachindra Vats and is set to premiere on ALTBalaji and Zee5 on December 29.
It traces the story of a medieval city fraught with crime, corruption, abuse of power, misogyny, rape and love.
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