The Indian Artistes and Actors Forum (IAAF) on Monday filed an official written complaint with the Information and Broadcasting I&B) Ministry regarding the introduction of adult porn star Sunny Leone in the popular television reality show Bigg Boss 5 on Colors channel.

Spokesperson for the IAAF said, "We have written an official letter of complaint to the I&B Minister Smt Ambika Soni asking her to take stringent action against the channel for indirectly encouraging and promoting pornography in India via the introduction of a porn star Sunny Leone in the Bigg Boss House.

"Sunny Leone has proclaimed on her website 'as seen on Bigg Boss 5', but the website is nothing but a hard core porn site and there is no mechanism to stop minors from accessing the website. We have emailed the complaint to the minister as well as sent the same by registered post to her office."

The text of the IAAF complaint read: "We are an informal body of actors and artistes (including singers, musicians, etc) all connected with the Film and Television industry.

We would like to place on record through this correspondence our official complaint regarding the indirect promotion of adult content and pornography by Tv Channel Colors via the introduction of adult porn star Sunny Leone in their popular TV Reality Show Bigg Boss Season 5."

"Several newspapers have reported on this trend and phenomenon and our own research has found out that thousands of youth including minors who were earlier not aware of Sunny Leone's status or profession have been specifically searching for her photographs, biodata, etc on the internet and are exposed to hard core pornographic content including photographs and videos on the internet, the moment they type out her name on any search engine like Google.

"This is only because she is seen on the show Bigg Boss 5 and viewers would like to know more about her. Even her website which proclaims Sunny Leone "as seen on Bigg Boss 5" is a hard-core porn website offering pornographic content to users.

Though it has an option asking viewer to exit if they are below 18, there is no mechanism to ensure that viewers below 18 do not view the pornographic content on sunnyleone dot com."

In its letter, the IAFF said: "It is our contention that Tv channel Colors was aware of this possibility and knowingly chose to introduce an adult porn star into a TV programme which is watched by people of all age groups.

By introducing Sunny Leone in their TV programme, TV Channel Colors is indirectly promoting a pornographic website www.sunnyleone dot com and is in blatant violation of Indian Television laws.

"We request you to take immediate and stringent action for this violation of the Broadcast code and ensure that other TV channels in future do not introduce porn actors in family shows."