Actors dropping their shirt is becoming increasingly common

Time was when filmmakers from Raj Kapoor to Feroz Khan made sure the women in their films showed ample skin. Whether it was Zeenat Aman in 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' or Mandakini in 'Ram Teri Ganga Maili', images of the actresses displaying their assets to advantage are top of mind even today.
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Of course, the trend of getting the girls into a bikini or swimming gear continued right until the recent 'Dhoom' series, in which Aditya Chopra made it a point to have the leading ladies showing off their perfect 10 bodies.But there seems to be a role reversal. Frankly, blame it on guys like Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan. These actors, who have well-maintained physiques through the year, dropped their shirts on screen without too much notice. Or even better, without any fuss.

In fact, their shirtless appearances got more eyeballs than the bikini acts of their female counterparts. “We slowly realised how important it was to get the men to strip," says a leading female director, adding, “So much so that nowadays, when we start work on our scripts, we include scenes where the heroheroes will definitely drop their shirts."
The lady director laughs and says it is almost like how certain male directors earlier made it a point to include those bathing suit sequences for the actresses. After all, everyone from Sharmila Tagore to Sonam Kapoor has masqueraded in swimwear on screen. The girls in question always explained their clothes dropping act with 'the script demanded it' excuse. With the men, however, there is no such defence offered. Salman laughs, “If my director asks me to take my shirt off and fight in the climax, what am I supposed to do? Say no?" Salman knows he has a legendary fan-following and in fact, the price of a ticket includes at least one bare body scene because he is India's favourite pin-up boy.

“Male stripping is common," says Sonu Sood, adding, “There obviously is a demand for it or else reputed filmmakers wouldn't be including these scenes in movies on a regular basis." Youngsters like Varun Dhawan have no qualms at all about walking in Salman or Hrithik's shoes, as he sheds his shirt again, for Badlapur. Says director Sriram Raghavan, “Portrayal of men in films has definitely changed over the years. When you see Varun's bare bodied scene in Badlapur, you'll realise it's there for a reason." It's only on rare ocassions that a bare body scene is pivotal to the script. More often than not, it's only to grab audience's attention. After all, there are those who argue that Hrithik's shirtless scenes in his last release Bang Bang have more recall value than Katrina's swimwear shot.
Watch: Hrithik shirtless in Bang Bang