Won't skirt this: TN House debates actress' dress

THE BOSS: Rajinikanth-starrer Sivaji was one of the biggest blocbusters of last year.

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Chennai: Rising hemlines saw temperatures going up in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Tuesday with an actress' short dress triggering a demand from the PMK for a law imposing a dress code and the ruling DMK counselling its ally that it should exercise restraint.

While the DMK advised the PMK that restraint, not the length of a skirt, was the solution, M K Kanimozhi, daughter of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and MP, was attacking the 'hypocrisy' of imposing a dress code on female actors elsewhere in the city.

Tamil film actresses have been under attack for sometime by conservatives and fundamentalists. The latest to be targeted is Shriya Saran, the heroine of the Rajnikant superhit "Sivaji: The Boss", who appeared in a short dress at a public function Jan 11 to celebrate the silver jubilee of the film. Karunanidhi was also present at the function.

Raising the issue during a discussion on the motion of thanks to the governor's address, PMK member T Velmurugan said TV channels, except Makkal TV owned by his party, were showing stars in skimpy clothing and demanded imposition of a dress code.

Many TV channels in Tamil Nadu are affiliated to one party or the other.

Public Works Minister Durai Murugan responded saying: "There can't be a yardstick to judge obscenity. We cannot say to what extent a woman should expose herself and what kind of undergarments she should wear."

"It is all in the eyes of the beholder", added Durai Murugan.

His colleague, Electricity Minister Arcot Veerasamy, chipped in: "All that we can do is advise them (the actors) to be appropriately dressed."

Deputy Speaker V.P. Duraisamy had the final say. He told the PMK legislator: "You seem to have seen all these programmes scene by scene."

Kanimozhi, participating in a discussion at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in the city on the way women are depicted in the media, referred to Shriya's case and said: "Why is it that we are objecting to women in skimpy dresses (in public) when we do not have any issues when women wear skimpy dresses or even less in films?"

Besides PMK, the Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK) has also objected to the way Shriya was dressed at the film function and filed a police complaint against her.

Shriya has tendered a public apology "to Tamils and Hindus" across the state saying she had made a "mistake". She said she had "great respect for the tradition and culture of Tamil Nadu".

"I was shooting for a Hindi film in Thanjavur. I came to the function directly from the shooting," she explained. "I was unaware of the repercussions because of the attire I wore during the function."

Actor Khushboo was targeted two years ago for discussing pre-marital sex in a magazine interview and again for "sitting cross-legged before the portraits of Hindu deities" during a muhurat of a film.