Which industry has the fiercest competition? All, you might say. But one that comes to mind immediately is Bollywood, or rather the Indian Film Industry, as it is now preferred to be called. Hundreds of movies get made every year and thousands of starry-eyed aspirants come to Mumbai to realize their dreams. But not all make it big. Some turn to other means of livelihood, some go back and a few attempt to grind it out. And this is where wannabe heroines become ‘item girls’.

Some item girls might disagree with me. For the sake of upholding their self-worth, they might say that they entered the industry just to be an item girl and have no aspirations to be a top actress. But I don’t think that’s true. Simply ‘cos that would be like me saying I am in advertising just to be me and don’t wanna be an Alyque Padamsee.

But one thing that these items are good at is creating publicity for themselves. And they have to, with new item girls cropping up every other day and even established actresses gyrating to the tunes of item songs. So when an Aishwarya does a Kajra Re…, a Rakhi is gonna feel seriously insecure. And if a Rakhi, an item song veteran, feels insecure, a newbie like Yasmeen will be as desperate for attention as a fat wife in a topless bar.

So what does Yasmeen do? She contacts some media people and accuses a film producer of sexual harassment, all while she’s shooting in attire that’s a tiny bit more than lingerie. Now, whether she really got harassed or not is another issue, but she at least got her name in the media circuit. And she also gave her fellow community members a new issue to generate publicity on. Some item girls were with her, while some didn’t have any sympathy for her, but they all made statements regarding her. Either way, they all got their names in the papers or on news channels. Nothing else mattered!

As for the media, they too feel desperate. Desperate to increase their viewerships and readerships, with the number of media outfits increasing as well. And to do that, they have to fill up their time slots or column spaces and so, a skimpily clad item girl saying something, or even just posing, is good enough for them. They’ll lap it up like hungry dogs and make hay while the sun shines. And when the sun stops shinning, there’ll be another item girl waiting and craving for some publicity. And thus, the cycle begins yet again.

Makes you think, both communities, the media and the items, are in a way, made for each other.