Portal:Prostitution in India
Portal maintenance status: (October 2018)
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Introduction
Prostitution is legal in India. A number of related activities including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, prostitution in a hotel, child prostitution, pimping and pandering are illegal. There are however many brothels illegally operating in Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. UNAIDS estimate there to be 657,829 prostitutes in the country.
Selected general articles
Meghadūta (Sanskrit: मेघदूत literally Cloud Messenger) is a lyric poem written by Kālidāsa, considered to be one of the greatest Sanskrit poets. Read more...- Deuki is an ancient custom practiced in the far western regions of Nepal where a young girl is offered to the local temple. The practice is in decline.
Girls become deukis either because their parents offer them in hopes of gaining protection and good favor from the Gods or because their parents sell them to wealthier couples seeking the same holy approval. Poor families who offer up their daughters gain status and approval from their communities from the perceived sacrifice they have made. They are also relieved of the burden of finding husbands for their daughters. Read more... - The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the main criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted in 1860 on the recommendations of first law commission of India established in 1834 under the Charter Act of 1833 under the Chairmanship of Thomas Babington Macaulay. It came into force in British India during the early British Raj period in 1862. However, it did not apply automatically in the Princely states, which had their own courts and legal systems until the 1940s. The Code has since been amended several times and is now supplemented by other criminal provisions.
After the partition of the British Indian Empire, the Indian Penal Code was inherited by its successor states, the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, where it continues independently as the Pakistan Penal Code. The Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) applicable in Jammu and Kashmir is also based on this Code. After the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, the code continued in force there. The Code was also adopted by the British colonial authorities in Colonial Burma, Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), the Straits Settlements (now part of Malaysia), Singapore and Brunei, and remains the basis of the criminal codes in those countries. Read more... - Amar Prem (translation: Immortal Love) is a 1972 Indian drama film directed by Shakti Samanta. The film is a remake of a Bengali film Nishi Padma (1970), directed by Arabinda Mukherjee, who wrote screenplay for both the films based on the Bengali short story Hinger Kochuri by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. The film portrays the decline of human values and relationships and contrasts it by presenting an illustrious example of a boy's innocent love for a neighbourhood courtesan. The movie is about a school boy, who is ill-treated by his step mother, and becomes friends with a prostitute neighbour. The film stars Sharmila Tagore playing a prostitute with a heart of gold, with Rajesh Khanna in the role of a lonely businessman and Vinod Mehra as adult Nandu, the young child, who they both come to care for.
The film is noted for its music by R.D. Burman; numbers sung by famous playback singers like Kishore Kumar, R.D. Burman's father S.D. Burman and Lata Mangeshkar; lyrics were by Anand Bakshi. The thought-provoking song Chingaari Koi Bhadke, written by Anand Bakshi and sung by Kishore Kumar, is one of the highlights of this classic. The song topped at 5th position on year-end chart toppers list Binaca Geetmala annual list 1972. Read more... - :See Khanjar for the bladed weapon.
The Kanjar speak the Kanjari language, a little studied Indo Aryan language, but almost all also speak Punjabi and Urdu. Read more... - A tawaif was a highly sophisticated courtesan who catered to the nobility of India, particularly during the Mughal era. The tawaifs excelled in and contributed to music, dance (mujra), theatre, and the Urdu literary tradition, and were considered an authority on etiquette. Tawaifs were largely a North Indian institution central to Mughal court culture from the 16th century onwards and became even more prominent with the weakening of Mughal rule in the mid-18th century. They contributed significantly to the continuation of traditional dance and music forms
and then emergence of modern Indian cinema. Read more... - The All Bengal Women's Union was started in the 1932, when a group of women in West Bengal formed a cadre of like-minded women to help their helpless, exploited and victimized fellow women.
The genesis of the group lay in the fact that trafficking in women and children had increased to an unprecedented extent in West Bengal and the Calcutta area and this NGO was an attempt to address the problem. Read more...
Āmrapālī, also known as "Ambapālika" or "Ambapali", was a celebrated nagarvadhu (royal courtesan) of the republic of Vaishali (located in present-day Bihar) in ancient India around 500 BC. Following the Buddha's teachings, she became an arahant. She is mentioned in the old Pali texts and Buddhist traditions, particularly in conjunction with the Buddha staying at her mango grove, Ambapali vana, which she later donated to his order and wherein he preached the famous Ambapalika Sutta. The legend of Amrapali originated in the Buddhist Jataka Tales some 1500 years ago. Read more...- Kamathipura (also spelled Kamthipuram) is a neighbourhood in Mumbai, India. It was first settled after 1795 with the construction of causeways that connected the erstwhile seven islands of Bombay. Initially known as Lal Bazaar, it got its name from the Kamathis (workers) of other areas of the country, who were labourers on construction sites. Due to tough police crackdown, in the late 1990s with the rise of AIDS and government's redevelopment policy that helped sex workers to move out of the profession and subsequently out of Kamathipura, the number of sex workers in the area has dwindled. In 1992, Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) recorded there were 50,000 sex workers here which was reduced to 1,600 in 2009, with many sex workers migrating to other areas in Maharashtra and real estate developers taking over the high-priced real estate. Read more...
- Sadak (English: Road) is a 1991 Indian romantic thriller film directed by Mahesh Bhatt. It stars Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt. The film is the second-highest-grossing Hindi movie of the year 1991 and the seventh-highest-grossing Hindi film of the '90s decade, with a groundbreaking musical score. The film is also fondly remembered for the late Sadashiv Amrapurkar's award-winning performance as the film's villain, Maharani. The film was inspired by the 1976 American movie Taxi Driver. This film was remade in Tamil as Appu (2000), directed by Vasanth with actor Prashanth and Devayani in lead roles, with Prakash Raj as the antagonist. Read more...
- Chameli (Translation: "Jasmine") is a 2004 Indian Hindi film. It stars Kareena Kapoor and Rahul Bose, and was directed by Anant Balani, who died before the film was complete; after his death, Sudhir Mishra directed the movie. Read more...
Kanhopatra (or Kanhupatra) was a 15th-century Marathi saint-poet, venerated by the Varkari sect of Hinduism.
Little is known about Kanhopatra. According to most traditional accounts, Kanhopatra was a courtesan and dancing-girl. These accounts typically concentrate on her death when she chose to surrender to the Hindu god Vithoba—the patron god of the Varkaris—rather than becoming a concubine of the Badshah (king) of Bidar. She died in the central shrine of Vithoba in Pandharpur. She is the only person whose samadhi (mausoleum) is within the precincts of the temple. Read more...
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in this field is called a prostitute, and is a type of sex worker.
Prostitution occurs in a variety of forms, and its legal status varies from country to country (sometimes from region to region within a given country), ranging from being permissible but unregulated, to an enforced or unenforced crime, or a regulated profession. It is one branch of the sex industry, along with pornography, stripping, and erotic dancing. Brothels are establishments specifically dedicated to prostitution. In escort prostitution, the act may take place at the client's residence or hotel room (referred to as out-call), or at the escort's residence or a hotel room rented for the occasion by the escort (in-call). Another form is street prostitution. Although the majority of prostitutes are female and have male clients, a prostitute can be, and have clients, of any gender or sexual orientation. Read more...- Legal status of prostitution across Asia.Legalization -prostitution legal and regulatedAbolitionism - prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulatedNeo-abolitionism illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sexProhibitionism - prostitution illegalLegality varies with local laws
The legality of prostitution in Asia varies by country. In Asia, the main characteristic of the region is the significant discrepancy between the prostitution laws which exist on the books and what occurs in practice. For example, in Thailand prostitution is illegal, but in practice it is tolerated, and the country is a destination for sex tourism. In 2011, the Asian Commission on Aids estimated there were 10 million sex workers in Asia and 75 million male customers.
Child prostitution is a serious problem in this region. Past surveys indicate that 30 to 35 percent of all prostitutes in the Mekong sub-region of Southeast Asia are between 12 and 17 years of age. Read more... - Chandni Bar is a 2001 Indian Hindi crime film directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. It depicts the gritty life of the Mumbai underworld, including prostitution, dance bars and gun crime. The film stars Tabu and Atul Kulkarni in lead roles. It also stars Ananya Khare, Rajpal Yadav, Minakshi Sahani and Vishal Thakkar. The film was a critically acclaimed hit and it won four National Film Awards. Read more...
- G.B. Road (full name Garstin Bastion Road) is a road running from Ajmeri Gate to Lahori Gate, in Delhi, India. It is a large red-light district. It has several hundred multi-story brothels and there are estimated to be over 1000 sex workers. It is lined with two or three-storey buildings that have shops on ground floor. About twenty of these buildings have about 100 brothels on the first floor that open at night after the shops at ground level close. It is the biggest red light area in Delhi. The road's name was officially changed to Swami Shradhanand Marg in 1966. Read more...
Rani Roopmati, was a Hindu singer, and later Queen of Malwa after her marriage to Sultan Baz Bahadur. The Sultan and Roopmati fell in love with each other and were married according to Muslim and Hindu rites.
Adham Khan was prompted to conquer Mandu partly due to Roopmati's beauty. When Adham Khan marched on the fort Baz Bahadur met him with his small force and was defeated, Roopmati poisoned herself. Thus ending the magical love story which was steeped in music, poetry, romance, war and death. This romance is considered a legend by some whilst others consider it to be true. Read more...- Prostitution in Bhutan is illegal but in many of Bhutan's border towns there are people openly practicing in the sex trade. Prostitution mainly occurs in bars, clubs & hotels. Some of the sex workers are employed by bar and hotel owners to attract customers. Prostitution also occurs in the capital, Thimphu.
There are thought to be 400 - 500 sex workers in the country, many from poor backgrounds who enter prostitution for financial reasons. Read more... - Salaam Bombay! is a 1988 Indian film written and directed by Mira Nair, and screenwritten by her longtime creative collaborator, Sooni Taraporevala. The film chronicles the day-to-day life of children living in the slums of Bombay, India's biggest city. It stars Shafiq Syed, Hansa Vithal, Chanda Sharma, Raghuvir Yadav, Anita Kanwar, Nana Patekar and Irrfan Khan.
It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, the National Board of Review Award for Top Foreign Film, the Golden Camera and Audience Awards at the Cannes Film Festival, and three awards at the Montréal World Film Festival. The film was India's second film submission to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film was among the list of "The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" by The New York Times. Read more... - Prostitution in Indonesia is legally considered a "crime against decency/morality", although it is widely practiced, tolerated and even regulated in some areas. Some women are financially motivated to become prostitutes, while others may be forced by friends, relatives or strangers. Traditionally, they have met with customers in entertainment venues or special prostitution complexes, or lokalisasi. However, recently internet forums and Facebook have been used to facilitate prostitute-client relations. In recent years, child sex tourism has become an issue at the resort islands of Batam and Bali.
Female sex tourism also emerged in the late 20th century in Bali. Young Balinese male sex workers meet with Japanese, European, and Australian women who, by all accounts, seem perfectly happy with the arrangement. UNAIDS estimate there to be 226,791 prostitutes in the country. Read more... - A tawaif was a highly sophisticated courtesan who catered to the nobility of India, particularly during the Mughal era. The tawaifs excelled in and contributed to music, dance (mujra), theatre, and the Urdu literary tradition, and were considered an authority on etiquette. Tawaifs were largely a North Indian institution central to Mughal court culture from the 16th century onwards and became even more prominent with the weakening of Mughal rule in the mid-18th century. They contributed significantly to the continuation of traditional dance and music forms
and then emergence of modern Indian cinema. Read more... - A 1920s photograph of two Devadasis in Tamil Nadu, South India
In parts of southern and eastern India, a devadasi (Sanskrit: देवदासी, lit. 'female servant of deva (god)') or jogini is a girl "dedicated" to worship and service of a deity or a temple for the rest of her life. The age group of a girl to be converted as devadasi is 7–36 years. The dedication takes place in a Pottukattu ceremony which is similar in some ways to marriage. Originally, in addition to taking care of the temple and performing rituals, these women learned and practiced classical Indian artistic traditions like Bharatanatya and Odissi dances. They enjoyed a high social status as dance and music were essential part of temple worship.
Traditionally, devadasis had a high status in society. After becoming concubines to wealthy patrons, they spent their time honing their religious rituals and dance instead of becoming housewives. They had children from high officials or priests who were also taught their skills of music or dance. Often their patrons had other servants who served them as housewives. Eminent personalities that have hailed from this community are Bharat Ratna M S Subbalakshmi and Padma Vibhushan Ms Balasaraswathi. Read more...
Nautch dancer in Calcutta, ca. 1900
In North India, Nautch (/ˈnɔːtʃ/) is one of several styles of popular dance, performed by girls known as Nautch girls. The word Nautch is an anglicized version of नाच (nāc), a word found in several languages of North India including Hindi and Urdu, derived from the Sanskrit, Nritya, via the Prakrit, Nachcha. A simple and literal translation of Nautch is "dance" or "dancing".
The culture of the performing art of Nautch rose to prominence during the later period of Mughal Empire, and the British East India Company Rule. Over time, the Nautch traveled outside the confines of the Imperial courts of the Mughals, the palaces of the Nawabs and the Princely states, and the higher echelons of the officials of the British Raj, to the places of smaller Zamindars, and other places. Read more...
Nritya (IAST: Nṛitya, नृत्य), also referred to as Nrit, Nritta, Natana or Natya, refers to "dance, act on the stage, act, gesticulate, play" in the Indian traditions. It is sometimes sub-divided into two forms: nritta or pure dance, wherein expression-less movements of a dancer play out the rhythms and phrases of the music; and nritya or expressive dance, wherein the dancer includes facial expression and body language to portray mood and ideas with the rhythmic movements to communicate with the audience.
Nritya is broadly categorized as one of three parts of Sangita, the other two being gita (vocal music, song) and vadya (instrumental music). These ideas appear in the Vedic literature of Hinduism such as in the Aitareya Brahmana, and in early post-Vedic era Sanskrit texts such as the Natya Shastra, Panchatantra, Malvikagnimitra and Kathasaritsagara. Read more...- Bazaar-e-Husn (Urdu: بازارِ حُسن) or Seva Sadan (Hindi: सेवासदन) is a Hindustani novel by Munshi Premchand.
It was originally written in Urdu under the title Bazaar-e-Husn ("Market of Beauty" or Red-light district) but was first published in Hindi from Calcutta as Seva Sadan ("The House of Service"), in 1919. It was published in Urdu, in 1924, from Lahore. Read more... - Dev.D is an Indian romantic black comedy drama film released on 6 February 2009. Written and directed by Anurag Kashyap, it is a modern-day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic Bengali novel Devdas, previously adapted for the screen by P.C. Barua and Bimal Roy and more recently by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Dev.D was embraced by the media, critics and public. The film is set in contemporary Punjab and Delhi, where familial ties are negotiated by the traditions of patriarchy and marriages are reduced to a game of power and "honour". Read more...
- Prostitution in the Philippines is illegal, although somewhat tolerated, with law enforcement being rare with regards to sex workers. Penalties range up to life imprisonment for those involved in trafficking, which is covered by the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003. Prostitution is often available through bars, karaoke bars (also known as KTVs), massage parlors, brothels (also known as casa), street walkers, and escort services.
The "Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study" conducted in 2002 by the University of the Philippines' Population Institute and Demographic Research and Development Foundation found that 19% of young males had paid for sex and 11% had received payment for sexual favors Read more...
Nautch dancer in Calcutta, ca. 1900
In North India, Nautch (/ˈnɔːtʃ/) is one of several styles of popular dance, performed by girls known as Nautch girls. The word Nautch is an anglicized version of नाच (nāc), a word found in several languages of North India including Hindi and Urdu, derived from the Sanskrit, Nritya, via the Prakrit, Nachcha. A simple and literal translation of Nautch is "dance" or "dancing".
The culture of the performing art of Nautch rose to prominence during the later period of Mughal Empire, and the British East India Company Rule. Over time, the Nautch traveled outside the confines of the Imperial courts of the Mughals, the palaces of the Nawabs and the Princely states, and the higher echelons of the officials of the British Raj, to the places of smaller Zamindars, and other places. Read more...
Zohrabai Agrewali (1868–1913) was one of the most noted and influential singers of Hindustani Classical Music from the early 1900s. Along with Gauhar Jan, she marks the dying phase of the courtesan singing tradition in Indian classical music. She is known for her masculine style of singing. Read more...- Tulasa Thapa (1970–1995) was a Nepali girl who was kidnapped from her home village of Thankot near Kathmandu in 1982 at the age of 13, smuggled into Mumbai via the border town of Birganj in Parsa District, and sold into prostitution. She was systematically beaten into submission, then repeatedly raped to make her fit for the trade. She was sold to three different brothels in Mumbai, at prices ranging from 5000 to 7000 rupees. In addition to the sex work she was forced to do in the brothel at a minimum of three customers per night (with an average of eight), she was sent to various city hotels dressed in European style clothes to entertain customers for 180 rupees per night until at last a hotel manager reported her to the police. Following the public outcry, the governments of India and Nepal signed a 1985 cooperation agreement addressing the rescue and repatriation of Nepali girls trafficked into brothels in India. Read more...
A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. Although now usually found only in the most wealthy of households, in the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. Read more...
Gauhar Jaan (born Angelina Yeoward, 26 June 1873 – 17 January 1930) was an Indian singer and dancer from Calcutta. She was one of the first performers to record music on 78 rpm records in India, and released by Gramophone Company of India. Having recorded more than 600 records in more than ten languages between 1902 and 1920, Gauhar Jahan is credited with popularising Hindustani classical music such as thumri, dadra, kajri, tarana during the period. Read more...- Legal status of prostitution across Asia.Legalization -prostitution legal and regulatedAbolitionism - prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulatedNeo-abolitionism illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sexProhibitionism - prostitution illegalLegality varies with local laws
Prostitution is legal in India. A number of related activities including soliciting in a public place, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, prostitution in a hotel, child prostitution, pimping and pandering are illegal. There are however many brothels illegally operating in Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. UNAIDS estimate there to be 657,829 prostitutes in the country. Read more...
Bangalore Nagarathnamma (3 November 1878 – 19 May 1952) was an Indian Carnatic singer, cultural activist, scholar, and courtesan. A descendant of courtesans, she was also a patron of the arts and a historian. Nagarathnamma built a temple over the samadhi of the Carnatic singer Tyagaraja at Thiruvaiyaru and helped establish the Tyagaraja Aradhana festival in his memory. Within a male dominated festival, she was the feminist aggressive enough to ensure that women artists were given equality to participate in it. She "was among the last practitioners of the devadasi tradition in India," and the first president of the Association of the Devadasis of Madras Presidency. She also edited and published books on poetry and anthologies. Read more...- Devdas (Hindi: देवदास) is a 1955 Indian Drama movie directed by Bimal Roy, based on the Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay novel Devdas. The film had Dilip Kumar in the title role and Vyjayanthimala in her first dramatic role where she played as Chandramukhi, a hooker with a heart of gold and Suchitra Sen in her Bollywood debut as Parvati in the lead. Motilal, Nazir Hussain, Murad, Pratima Devi, Iftekhar and Shivraj were playing other significant roles with Pran and Johnny Walker in extended cameo appearances.
In 2005, Indiatimes Movies ranked the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films. Devdas was also ranked at Number 2 on University of Iowa's List of Top 10 Bollywood Films by Corey K. Creekmur. The film was also noted for its cinematography and lighting under Kamal Bose, that enhanced the emotional torment of the tight-lipped protagonist played by Dilip Kumar. Read more...
Joanna Nobilis Sombre (ca 1753– 27 January 1836), a convert Catholic Christian, popularly known as Begum Samru (Kashmiri: बेगम समरू (Devanagari), بیگم سمرو (Nastaleeq)) and also, as Begum Sumru, (née Farzana Zeb un-Nissa) started her career as a Nautch (dancing) girl in 18th century India, and eventually became the ruler of Sardhana, a small principality near Meerut. She was the head of a professionally trained mercenary army, inherited from her European mercenary husband, Walter Reinhardt Sombre. This mercenary army consisted of Europeans and Indians. She is also regarded as the only Catholic ruler in India, as she ruled the Principality of Sardhana in 18th- and 19th-century India.
Begum Sumru died immensely rich. Her inheritance was assessed as approximately 55.5 million gold marks in 1923 and 18 billion deutsch marks in 1953. Her inheritance continues to be disputed to this day. An organisation named "Reinhards Erbengemeinschaft" still strives to resolve the inheritance issue. During her lifetime she had converted to Christianity from Islam. Read more...- Devdas is a 2002 Indian romantic drama film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and based on the 1917 Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Devdas. This is the third Hindi version and the first film version of the story in Hindi done in colour. The film is set in the early 1900s and follows Shah Rukh Khan as Devdas, a wealthy law graduate who returns from London to marry his childhood sweetheart, Paro, played by Aishwarya Rai. However, the rejection of this marriage by his own family sparks his descent into alcohol, ultimately leading to his emotional deterioration and him seeking refuge with a courtesan played by Madhuri Dixit.
At the time of its release, Devdas was the most expensive Bollywood film ever produced, with a reported budget of ₹50 crore (US$7.0 million). The film was a commercial success in India and abroad, becoming the highest grossing Indian film of the year. Shah Rukh Khan has bought the rights to this film under his banner, Red Chillies Entertainment. Read more... - Dance bar is a term used in India to refer to bars in which adult entertainment in the form of dances by relatively well-covered women are performed for male patrons in exchange for cash. Dance bars used to be present only in Maharashtra, but later spread across the country, mainly in cities. Dance bars are a flirtatious world of fantasy catering to the need of feeling of being wanted.
Dance bars were banned in the state of Maharashtra in August 2005, which was first struck down by the Bombay High Court on 12 April 2006, and the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court in July 2013. The Maharashtra government banned dance bars again in 2014 by an Ordinance, but this too was found "unconstitutional" by the Supreme Court in October 2015, allowing Mumbai dance bars to reopen. Read more... - This is an overview of prostitution by region. Read more...
Imtiaz Mahal (Persian: امتیاز محل; meaning "distinguished one of the palace") better known by her birth name Lal Kunwar (Hindi: लाल कुंवर) was the Empress of the Mughal Empire as the wife of Mughal Emperor Jahandar Shah. She was a former dancing girl who exercised supreme influence over the Emperor, encouraged frivolity and pleasure which eventually led to his ignominious downfall.
She was the favorite concubine of Jahandar Shah and is more often referred to in histories by her given name Lal Kunwar. Read more...- Bazaar (Hindi: बाज़ार; English: Market) is a 1982 Indian drama film directed by Sagar Sarhadi and starring Naseeruddin Shah, Farooq Shaikh, Smita Patil and Supriya Pathak. The film set in Hyderabad, India, highlights the issue of bride buying in India, through the tragedy of a young girl being sold by needy parents to affluent expartraite Indians in the Gulf.
The film has sterling performances from almost all the cast and is akin to some other movies in the 1980s which highlighted oppression by the rich and powerful. Bazaar ('marketplace') is a realistic portrayal and highlights a system which is difficult to change. Read more... - Pakeezah (Pākīzā, meaning Pure) is a 1972 Indian cult classic film, written and directed by Kamal Amrohi, who was known for his perfectionism. The music is by Ghulam Mohammed and Naushad Ali. The film
starred Meena Kumari, Raaj Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Nadira, D.K. Sapru and Veena . Meena Kumari's performance as a golden-hearted Lucknow nautch-girl drew major praise. However, this was to be Meena Kumari's last performance.
Kamal Amrohi's PR man said: "Shah Jahan made Taj Mahal for his wife, Kamal Sahab wanted to do the same with Pakeezah." The concept, Kamal Amrohi says was irretrievably fixed with his love for his wife Meena Kumari. According to Kamal Amrohi, he hoped to create a film which would be worthy of her as an actress, and worthy of the love he felt for her as a woman. Meena Kumari regarded the film as Kamal Amrohi's tribute to her. Read more...
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Selected images
A brothel in Kamathipura
- Legal status of prostitution across Asia.Decriminalization - No criminal penalties for prostitutionLegalization -prostitution legal and regulatedAbolitionism - prostitution is legal, but organized activities such as brothels and pimping are illegal; prostitution is not regulatedNeo-abolitionism illegal to buy sex and for 3rd party involvement, legal to sell sexProhibitionism - prostitution illegalLegality varies with local laws
A lane in Kamathipura, a red light district in Mumbai.
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