Beyond the brief

Of late, the police say, the elderly morning walkers have had to look away from a hoarding at Kemp’s Corner. It shows a hunk, four-storey high, strutting in a really brief pair of VIP briefs. ‘‘The elderly citizens would call us and complain. They would ask: Why don’t you do something?’’ says police inspector Dilip Dhane. The number of complaints filed in the Gamdevi police station: Zero. That wasn’t a problem for Deputy Commissioner of Police Naval Bajaj: ‘‘Since it was affecting a part of the society, we had to take suo motu cognisance of the poster.’’

So Dhane became the main complainant in the case that has led to the Rs 300-crore Maxwell Industries — makers of VIP Frenchie — pull down their hoardings.

Arrests in the case have not been ruled out. Police stations have been asked to take cognisance of ‘‘vulgar’’ posters, which can also serve as evidence.

‘‘It’s a very technical case,’’ he says with a straight face. ‘‘I have to be very careful. It’s not a case where there is a witness and a crime.’’

The underwear manufacturers and admen are, meanwhile, mildly angry. ‘‘We have voluntarily decided to remove the 8-10 hoardings,’’ says Anthony Fernandes, head of marketing at Maxwell. ‘‘But tell me, if I do not show an underwear in an underwear ad, then what do I show?’’ he says.

‘‘It’s not like I have put a nude man on a hoarding,’’ says Piyush Pandey of O&M.

Pandey wishes that DCP Bajaj and his men had consulted him. ‘‘We might have been able to change a few things,’’ he says. His point is there were no police complaints, and the ad has been in newspapers for months, without any public outcry.

Pandey’s colleagues in the industry are not united over Mumbai police’s role as moral police. Says ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar: ‘‘I believe in freedom of expression, but I thought this was taking things too far,’’ he says.

Chairman of Canco Advertising Ramesh Narayan thinks the ads are fine. Sam Balsara, chairman of Madison Advertising, sighs and has the final word: ‘‘We are a nation of prudes, aren’t we.’’