Mallika Sherawat seems to have done it again - stepped right into a controversy, that is. And this time, she is all set to raise the political temperature this scorching summer with the first look poster of her upcoming flick, Dirty Politics.

The poster shows Mallika draped in a tricolour, and has Rajasthan's filmmaker KC Bokadia in trouble of the political kind. As he says, "workers of a political party from Rajasthan are putting pressure on me to change the tricolour into some other scrap of fabric."

Mallika, in the poster, is shown sitting on the top of an Ambassador with a beacon, right outside the State legislative Assembly of Rajasthan, holding a CD in her hand, but draped only in the tricolour. "The poster is provocative," admits Bokadia, and since the film is said to be based on Jodhpur's ANM Bhanwari Devi sex scandal, a political party got to know about it. And though tricolour dresses have always led to controversy for the wearer in the past, this time, Bokadia says it is not essentially an Indian flag since there is no Ashoka Chakra in the centre. But then again, resemblance to the colours of our flag is sure to raise eyebrows.

But point this out and Bokadia maintains, "It has nothing to do with tricolour, nor is it any political party's symbol. Also, there is no Ashoka Chakra, so essentially, it is just a piece of cloth in three different colours." And regarding the "pressure" by a political party, he says, "Sincerely, I don't want to earn the displeasure of any political party. I have always maintained that I can be an admirer of one party, but I do not belong to any party. I am just a filmmaker and using my creativity to put forth my point of view. As far as guidelines are concerned, the poster will be censored according Indian Motion Picture Producers Association guidelines. So, I don't know why I am being asked by this political party to change it."

The film stars Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jackie Shroff, Govind Namdev, Ashutosh Rana and Rajpal Yadav with Mallika Sherawat (supposedly as Bhanwari Devi).


Is there a law that says one cannot wear the tricolour? According to the prevention of insults to national honour Act, 1971: 'Whoever in any public place or in any other place within public view burns, mutilates, defaces, defiles, disfigures, destroys, tramples upon or otherwise shows disrespect to or brings into contempt the Indian National Flag - or any part thereof, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both'.

The Act was amended in 2003 and now has an added explanation which reads: 'The disrespect to the Indian National Flag means and includes using the Indian National Flag as a portion of costume or uniform of any description or embroidering or printing it onto cushions, handkerchiefs, napkins or any dress material'.