Rakhi Sawant sends legal notice to censor board

Rakhi Sawant feels that the censor board was being unjust in banning her song "Kameeni tera bhoot chad gaya re". She has sent a legal notice giving it a week to explain its decision. Otherwise, she will go on hunger strike, says the item girl.

"I'll wait for a week and then I go on a 'bhookh hartaal' in front of the censor office," Rakhi told IANS.

The always-in-the-news actress said: "Fearlessly I've sent a legal notice to the censor board. This is the first time something like this has happened. Others do chamchagiri of the censor board. Not me. I'm Rakhi Sawant. Main ishwar ki beti hoon (I'm god's daughter).

"The censor board has done me injustice by deleting the word 'kameeni' from my song. I won't take it lying down. Dharmendra has been saying the word 'kameeney' for years. Vishal Bharadwaj's 'Kaminey' came, were the censors asleep?

"There're heroines doing love-making scenes with their bare backs showing. Bharadwaj's films invariably have characters mouthing 'maa-bahen galis'. If Rakhi Sawant sings 'Kameeni tera bhoot chad gaya re', the censor board gets stung. The song has been produced by my company Faith Inc and I'm being damaged."

The argument that the word 'kameeni' is inappropriate on television holds no water for Rakhi.

"Kyon (why)? In the trailers of 'Ishqiya', they show Vidya Balan punch-drunk on television, and that too in a sari. Is that allowed in our culture? What was 'Choli ke peeche kya hai?' If that can be aired for years, why can't my song be telecast?"

Rakhi then takes off on television serials.

"Look at serials like 'Uttaran', 'Bairi Piya' and 'Bandini'. Young girls are being shown getting raped and forced to marry underage men. Women get married repeatedly, sometimes five times. Isn't this against the Indian laws? Isn't this against Indian culture? What is the censor board doing about such practices?

"Rakhi Sawant uses the word 'kameeni' and it becomes a dirty word. In serials, we have men dragging their wives by their hair muttering 'Kameeni main tujhe chodunga nahin'. No one pays any attention. Why point a finger at me?

"Stop all the malpractice on television and I too will shut up. We live in a corrupt and hypocritical democracy where the institutions appointed to monitor morality are bribed. Producers go with bulging suitcases and get their films passed. Aisa nahin chalega (It won't work)."

Indo Asian News Service