Mallika Sherawat Bares All (?) For Her Art In HISSS

Nudity in films is something most Western nations and film cultures take for granted, but in India, this is most definitely not the case.  In popular cinema over the last 40 years, there have been a few frames of nudity, but never more than that.  Well, that may be about to change a little bit.  Bollywood vixen Mallika Sherawat (The Myth, Murder) may have gone the full monty in Hisss for Jennifer Lynch's camera, if media reports are to be believed.  Apparently the film's producer, Govind Menon has confirmed that these scenes exist. 

Indian film industry rumors are a cagy beast.  This may turn out to be complete bunk, but if it isn't, it will be interesting to see how the country deals with this.  Indian culture can be a bit hard to pin down on issues of sexuality, specifically.  Not long ago, Twinkle Kumar, wife of Bollywood action hero Akshay Kumar, was arrested after playfully unbuttoning his fly at a fashion show when an official complaint was lodged with the decency police.

The producer is pulling the "artistic integrity" card on this one, saying, "The whole concept of nudity is justified because when you transform into a snake, which Mallika often does in the film, you can't have a dress or even a cloth or even a piece of jewelery on you."  We will see.

In addition to this news, there are conflicting reports about the international release of the film, with Menon also being quoted as saying that the English language version won't be released in the US until January, 2011.  This conflicts directly with Sherawat's tweets about the film opening in the US and Canada tomorrow.  My local theaters still have it on the schedule, and if it releases, I'll be there.  Hopefully, Menon was just talking about an English dub and his comments don't affect the original Hindi language version.

Hisss opens internationally (?) tomorrow, October 22nd.

Here is a list of US theaters where the film is scheduled to open, check for yourself:

Big Cinemas Columbia Park-Hudson New Jersey

Big Cinemas Columbia Fremont-Fremont California

Big Cinemas Loehmanns-Twin Fall Church Virginia

Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5-Niles Chicago

Naz 8 Cinemas Artesia-LA

Peach Tree-Atlanta

Funasia Richardson-Richardson Texas

Funasia Houston-Houston Texas

Movie City-Edison New Jersey

We also have a list of proposed openings in the UK:

CINEWORLD BRADFORD

CINEWORLD FELTHAM

CINEWORLD ILFORD

CINEWORLD WOODGREEN

CINEWORLD BRISTOL

CINEWORLD WOLVERHAMPTON

CINEWORLD BOLTON

BOLEYN EAST HAM

SAFARI HARROW

VUE BIRMINGHAM STAR CITY