The first Indian woman to pose naked for Playboy magazine is proud to have “pushed the envelope” in a country where nudity remains largely taboo.
Minor Bollywood actress Sherlyn Chopra, 28, will feature in a nude spread in the November issue of the magazine, although her Indian fans will be hard pushed to get hold of a copy.

Along with a host of other foreign “adult” magazines, Playboy is banned in India, which has strict obscenity laws proscribing any public act or published material deemed to be “lascivious or appealing to prurient interests.”

News that Chopra had become India’s first “Playmate” caused quite a stir, fueled by Chopra herself posting nude pictures from the Playboy shoot on a microblogging site.

As well as some inevitably lascivious and prurient responses, many Indians criticized her show-all decision and accused her of a desperate stunt to further an acting career.

For it was Chopra who approached Playboy with the idea of posing.

“If you consider being the first Indian woman to pose for Playboy an `achievement’ you should consider raising your standards,” a critic on Twitter said.

But Chopra sought to dismiss her critics and said she considers herself a pioneer for sexual freedom in India.

“I had no apprehensions and have no regrets – just feelings of pure liberation and sheer excitement,” she said of the Playboy shoot in Los Angeles. “I’m proud to have pushed the envelope, and I will not hesitate to lead my life on my terms consistently.”

Chopra’s Bollywood career to date has been decidedly B-list, with bit roles in less than a dozen movies, including the 2003 box-office dud Dosti (“Friendship”) and an effort in another titled Naughty Boy.

So her labeling as a “Bollywood legend” on the Playboy website was widely mocked across India. Indeed, Chopra admitted it was a “surreal” tag, adding: “I know that I’m just a girl with big dreams.”

Indian writers, actors and artists who have sought to push the boundaries of Indian morals have sometimes been targeted by conservative religious groups, but Chopra appeared unworried at the prospect of any backlash.

“The moral guardians have never done any real good to me or society at large,” she said. “So let them do whatever they are good at while I do what I truly enjoy.”

But publicity generated by Chopra’s shoot has been overshadowed in recent days by the release of what has been billed as one of India’s raunchiest mainstream movies, Jism 2 (“Body 2”).

Real-life adult film star Sunny Leone – born in India to Canadian parents – plays a porn actress in the movie, which has stirred controversy with its provocative publicity material and content.

The mayor of Mumbai, Sunil Prabhu, ordered the removal of posters for the film from city buses in India’s entertainment capital after a local legislator complained the image used was obscene. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE