Director Rituparno Ghosh is terribly amused and a trifle alarmed by rumours that his eagerly awaited psychodrama on feudal sexual oppression, "Antar Mahal", contains a nude shot.

"It doesn't, though it was part of the script. We did have a nude sequence in the script for the character of the elder daughter-in-law that Rupa Ganguly plays. But then we decided against it."

At that time Manisha Koirala had been approached for the part.

Abhishek Bachchan's female fans will be happy to know he's bare-chested for a sizeable part of the narrative.

"That's because he plays a potter from Bihar. Hence he's dressed in a lungi and little else. In fact someone on the sets joked that Abhishek should dedicate his award for 'Antar Mahal' to Mallika Sherawat, if he gets one."

The response to the Abhishek-Soha Ali Khan starrer at the Locarno Film festival was in one word, "Wow!"

According to sources in Locarno, the foreign press and audience were taken aback by the high erotic content of the film. Many have labelled "Antar Mahal" as Ghosh's sexiest film to date.

Ghosh is jubilant after the unprecedented response. "I'd say it was better received than 'Choker Bali' at the same festival."

He is far from defensive about the film's erotic content.

"Please understand, my film is about sexual repression. Hence sex is an integral part of the theme. You can't have a film on repression without all its manifestations. Unfortunately in our country, sex and love have become intertwined in cinema.

"Sex is often clubbed with eroticism. My film is definitely erotic but not sexy in the cheesy and cheap connotations of the term. This is the land of the Khajuraho and let's not shy away from frank and aesthetic depiction of sexuality on screen."

"Antar Mahal" which opens in November is bound to raise prudish eyebrows. But Ghosh is unfazed and says: "Let's stop behaving as though we live in medieval times."

Ghosh is also ready with his new Prosenjit-Konkona Sen Bengali drama "Dosar".