A recent photoshoot of Ranveer has now landed Singh in legal trouble. Ranveer Singh uploaded photos from his recent shoot for the New York-based magazine Paper on his Instagram handle. Paper is focused on popular culture and the article on Ranveer is titled “The Last Bollywood Superstar.” with photography by Ashish Shah, a story by Aishwarya Subramanyam and creative direction by Kshitij Kankaria. The magazine made a similar splash in 2014 after the release of its “Break the Internet” issue featuring Kim Kardashian.
Ranveer Singh’s nude photos have gone viral on social media and Mumbai Police registered an FIR against the actor on 26 July for sharing “obscene content” and “outraging the modesty of women”.
The FIR is based on the complaints of Vedika Chaubey, a lawyer, who says she has two daughters and because of the photographs, she had to keep telling them to not open their social media accounts and even news portals. In her complaint, Chaubey, a former journalist, said: “Last week, I saw many nude photographs of actor Ranveer Singh on social media and the photographs were clicked in such a manner that any male or female will feel ashamed about it.”
A separate complaint was registered by Lalit Tekchandani, who runs the NGO called Shyam Mangaram Foundation. In his complaint, he said that Ranveer’sphotos could influence children who have a craze for these actors. Police said that the complainant also alleged that Singh’s photos insulted women’s modesty and hurt women’s sentiments.
Here is a look at the laws under which Singh has been booked.
Sections 292,293 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 67A of the IT Act.
SECTION 292 OF THE IPC
*A book, pamphlet, paper, writing, drawing, etc, shall be deemed to be obscene if it is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect,…if taken as a whole, such as to tend to deprave and corrupt a person.
*Whosoever sells, lets to hire, distributes, exhibits, or circulates to any person under the age of 20 years any such obscene object as is referred to in the last preceding section, or offers or attempts to do so, shall be punished.
SECTION 509 OF THE IPC
*Word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.
SECTION 67A OF THE IT ACT
*Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing the sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form.
Experts argued that the laws were outdated and loosely defined and can be used to harass citizens. One must note here that Singh is not the only one against whom such a case has been filed. Shilpa Shetty- still fighting the case, as of 2022 and Milind Soman have also faced legal troubles for similar acts. Meanwhile, an NGO in Indore “donated” clothes to Ranveer Singh following the actor’s nude photoshoot.
