Bollywood spooked by camera phones

Bollywood stars these days think twice before venturing into hotels, discos or even to join a friend's birthday bash-amateur paparazzi using mobile phone cameras have got them running scared.



A series of intimate exposes of film celebrities have rocked the world's largest movie industry, and celebrities are ready to fight back-with their fists if necessary.







Bollywood got its first taste of what a mobile phone camera can do when leading tabloid Mid Day earlier this year published lip-locking pictures it claimed were of top actress Kareena Kapoor and actor boyfriend Shahid Kapoor shot by a fan at a city pub.


Bollywood's reigning sex siren, Mallika Sherawat, is the latest to be caught in a controversy over multimedia messaging service (MMS) phones, which allow the user to create, send and receive images and audio and video clips.



A graphic MMS eight-minute clip of a sex act allegedly between Sherawat and a foreigner has been in circulation on cellphones in India for many weeks, infuriating the actress who has taken the matter to police.



The Information Technology Act 2000 bans dissemination of obscene images, with punishment of up to five years in jail.



Police are investigating the origins of the image but say it will not be easy nabbing the culprits.



"The grey area is that a police case would have to be against a person or group of persons (rather than service providers).




Tracking down Internet and mobile phone porn is difficult," said a High Court lawyer specialising in international laws.



More effective, the lawyer argued, would be for the regulator or concerned ministry to issue stricter guidelines demanding mobile phone service providers find ways to clean up content sent by its customers.






Leading Bollywood actress and former Miss World Lara Dutta called for a ban on the phones.


"These mobile cameras are an invasion of privacy and there is nothing more annoying than someone clicking your picture without you noticing," she said.










Priyanka Chopra

Said Priyanka Chopra, the industry's latest leading lady and a former Miss World: "I even block the keyhole of my hotel room as this MMS business has psyched everyone around."


With a ban on camera phones unlikely, actors are instead boosting their security.



"I live in a very closed-circuit and my security is perfect," said actress and former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen, who has installed electronic security gadgets at her Mumbai apartment.



"I feel if anyone tries to fiddle with his MMS phone or any camera gadget, he would be the first to get caught rather than me. I will actually bash him," she warned.

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