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: