Bohemian Rhapsody - From running naked on the beach to living in ‘sin', Bollywood's mindset has changed!

Running nude publicly, having a baby out of wedlock or living-in has become a way of life in Bollywood. Sumita Chakraborty finds out more about the changing mindset of the film industry.

- Sumita Chakraborty

Way back in 1974, Protima Bedi, actor, danseuse, ex-wife of Kabir Bedi and mother of Pooja Bedi, ran naked on Juhu beach in Mumbai. This was for a film magazine cover. And boy, did it create a stir in Bollywood. Eyebrows were raised, eyes rolled and of course, it really set the tongue wagging.

In fact, the incident was spoken about in the industry way too much for many, many years. Protima Bedi was dubbed by a certain section of narrow-minded haters as wild, wanton and bold, and even though this accomplished woman went on to garner acclaims and accolades and even set up an Odissi dance ashram called Nrityagram, somehow she could never shrug off the bohemian image.

Kabir Bedi in his memoir 'Stories | Must Tell: The Emotional Journey of an Actor' wrote, Protima came to me in Malaysia and said, 'I have streaked'. Streaking is somebody running naked on a stage or street, generally protesting something.| couldn't understand what she was talking about. She said | have streaked and somebody photographed and put it in a magazine. She wasn't telling me the truth. Later, it turned out that she did it as a publicity stunt for a magazine.