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This is an archive article published on July 11, 1998

No Full Monty for Mumbai women, says Navalkar now

MUMBAI, July 10: After having directed his ire against `vulgar' plays, Maharashtra's Cultural Affairs Minister Pramod Navalkar has now train...

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MUMBAI, July 10: After having directed his ire against `vulgar’ plays, Maharashtra’s Cultural Affairs Minister Pramod Navalkar has now trained his guns on “male strip-tease shows” being performed in the metropolis. He has written to police commissioner R H Mendonca to conduct a probe into the “unhealthy phenomenon” following a complaint made by the Indian Youth Organisation (IYO) about a strip-tease show held at the Razzberry Rhinoceros, Juhu.

The complaint, made by the IYO’s general secretary Raees Sabbadi on Wednesday, refers to a report in the daily Samantar, according to which nearly 400 women, aged between 16 and 60, watched a strip-tease act performed by four male models on March 8, International Women’s Day. The organisation has asked Navalkar to urgently take notice of such depravity and stop the rapid decline in Mumbai’s culture.

While Navalkar was unavailable for comment, his personal assistant informed the minister had taken serious note of the complaint, and the inquiry into the matterwould be over in five days. Mumbai has more than five regular male strip-tease shows held at different venues. “These nights are real crowd-pullers,” said a spokesperson for Razzberry Rhinoceros, which has hosted a number of such events in the recent past. “Women are seen enjoying over here, and they often inquire about such events. It’s obvious that they want more, and why not? When there are so many ladies’ dance bars where women perform, what’s wrong if women too enjoy? It’s just dance and some harmless fun, where the women can let go of their inhibitions,” he pointed out.

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A few joints in the city organise “hen-nites,” which only women are allowed to attend. A team of male dancers performs in these shows, and the performers shed almost all their clothes, sources informed.

One such “hen-nite” was recently held at Club Abyss, Bandra, and was sponsored by India Today. “It wasn’t exactly a striptease show,” said the manager of the club, Sanghram Simha. He said India Today was actually shootingsome `male dancers,’ and the female crowd was allowed to enter free of charge. He said these nights weren’t good for business and added that if a ban was declared on such shows, it would be welcome, because they didn’t rake in any moolah.

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