Cuffs out for Bombay striptease

The teenagers undressed on a busy Bombay street

Three television producers have been arrested in India over a show in which two teenage girls stripped to their underwear on a busy Bombay street.

The producers, from Channel V - a 24-hour music channel owned by Rupert Murdoch - dared the girls to strip to music - for a prize of 1,500 Indian rupees ($35).

Along with six colleagues, they have been charged with obscenity and indecency - charges which carry a punishment of up to two-years in prison.

The clip was aired on the channel's programme, V Dares You, and showed traffic grinding to a halt.

It was sick and in bad taste

Police inspector Shirish Inamdar

The girls danced to music played on a portable system placed in the middle of a road.

"Police called up and asked, 'What the hell is going on? Can't anything be done,'" said senior inspector Shirish Inamdar of the Bombay Police.

"It hurt their sensitivity. It was sick and in bad taste," he said.

Charged

Police officials asked the channel for copies of the programme and decided to press charges after viewing the tapes.

Obscenity is in the mind. It depends on how you interpret it

Malati Puranik, Channel V

"We are also trying to trace the girls who stripped," Inspector Inamdar said.

The channel has since pulled the programme off the air and said it was reviewing the show.

"I think they are making a mountain out of a molehill. What about scenes in music videos aired on television and Hindi movies?" said Malati Puranik, the channel's public relations head.

"Obscenity is in the mind. It depends on how you interpret it," she added.

Crackdown

In recent years, the authorities in Bombay and other parts of India have cracked down on the media for promoting sexual displays and what it terms as vulgar content.

Two years ago, rock musicians in Bombay were asked to submit the lyrics of their songs to the government for scrutiny.

The same year, an arrest warrant was issued for Rupert Murdoch, to answer charges that his Star television channel was showing obscene films.