TV artistes also involved in sex trade racket in the glamour world, indicates Star News expose

Remember we spoke out recently about the growing trend of television actresses willing to shed more and more of their inhibitions for the sake of roles, money and fun?

While we spoke to a cross section of actors who admitted to knowledge of the syndrome (read story - Couched in controversy), Star News has gone a step further in its investigation of the flesh trade racket touching the lives of models and actresses. In a series of exposes on its late night Saturday show, Red Alert, the show has stumbled onto artistes who are willing to spend nights with customers for hefty sums - all for an easy buck that facilitates a lavish lifestyle. The show producers say they have ample proof that lead actresses from 'family drama' serials too are open to the idea of nights out for earning some easy money.

While Sweta Keswani, Jaya Bhattacharya and Shweta Kawaatra had admitted to us that producers and directors ready to exploit willing starlets into submission abound in the industry, the Star News team actually got a music video star on camera, accepting payment for a night out.

Jitendra Dixit, the Red Alert anchor who got wind of the phenomenon during an earlier episode unearthing the prostitution racket in Delhi, says they stumbled on to two websites - chamdi.com and bombaysexguide.com, which featured photographs of Bollywood actresses and promised prospective clients exclusive meeting with them.

Further research led the team to a key operator Sameer who promised them 'top model's and actresses, all of whom would be available for a price that ranged from Rs 30,000 to nearly Rs 4,00,000.

While three of the actresses the pimp got the Star News team to meet in a posh suburban hotel turned out to be duplicates with strong resemblances to the original (duplicates of Lisa Ray, Amisha Patel and Priyanka Chopra
turned up at the rendezvous), the team managed to fix a date with a girl, who has had a part in a Bollywood hit, has featured in a music video and now has some more releases lined up. After consuming a few drinks, she told her 'clients' that she knew that her activities were indeed risky and that her career would be affected if she was caught, but that she indulged in it for the easy money. She also mentioned that it was 'nothing wrong', since she was in any case related to the 'glamour world'.

The hidden cameras that captured her statements, her acceptance of the payment (upward of Rs one lakh), will all be telecast in Saturday's episode of Red Alert at 11.30 pm.

Says Dixit, "For us, although it was difficult to get to meet them, it was even tougher wriggling out of the situation by making excuses like we had to rush out for emergencies!"

But Dixit says they know for a fact that there are leading ladies of television who are also not averse to similar activities, and don't consider it against their morals to earn a little money on the side to keep up extravagant lifestyles.

The fabled 'casting couch' may be one end of the spectrum, but at the other, there seems to be growing willingness to trade more than just histrionic skills for materialistic returns!