It was touted as a contest to pick a dancer for an "item number" in a Hindi movie but the near nudity on the stage left star-judges Vivek Oberoi and Abhishek Bachchan aghast and red faced.

On Tuesday night, producers of the forthcoming film "Musafir" hosted the contest to pick a fresh young dancer to perform a sizzling show in their film.

But many wondered why the contest, which got reduced to a raunchy show with the dancers indulging in vulgar and suggestive gyrations on stage, was held since the film had already been completed and was being readied for a post-Diwali release.

Said a prominent member of the audience. "Frankly what happened at the contest was in extremely bad taste. There were girls who were stripping beyond the bare minimum on stage and performing mock copulations on stage. Not one of them was good enough to be put on screen. Members of the audience were openly boozing and watching the girls on stage. The atmosphere was no better than in a beer bar.

"But I wonder if they (dancers) minded. These girls on stage seemed most happy performing and taking off their clothes."

A bar was set up in the foyer of the auditorium and drinks were served openly.

The two judges for the evening, Abhishek Bachchan and Vivek Oberoi, were clearly embarrassed. The duo was almost speechless while rating the best girl from a field of 14 on Tuesday night.

"The giddy limit was when they were asked to comment on every participant's vital statistic in full detail.

A shocked Vivek Oberoi desperately tried to buy time and eventually looked at Bachchan asking him whether he'd like to go first. Abhishek, clearly fidgety, refused muttering a few scores: "This is very embarrassing."

Both Vivek and he conducted themselves with exemplary self-control, specially since the entire press corps from television was present in full spirit asking them both to be accountable for the raunchy goings on," commented another member of the audience.

For those interested, a Belarus-born beauty Tatsiana Bokhan was chosen winner of the "Musafir Item Bomb" and get to cavort around with Sanjay Dutt in the film.The second winner was Anisha from Delhi, while a South American, Liris Mosquera, came third.