Wet sari scene

Wet sari scenes are an on-screen cliché in Hindi cinema films, in which fully clothed actresses are depicted in wet saris that cling to their bodies. This functions as a proxy for nudity in mainstream Indian cinema, where nudity is taboo.

According to Pooja Makhijani, in an interview with rediff.com:

Bollywood is wonderfully escapist. And completely comforting, as nothing really changes. Every blockbuster has at least one of the following: a wet sari scene, an over-the-top dance number with hundreds of mustachioed extras, an overbearing patriarch, pehla pyar (first love), and a wonderfully choreographed fight sequence in which the police show up the second the bad guys are down and out.

Films showing wet sari scenes include Mera Naam Joker (1970), Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978), Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985) and Kishen Kanhaiya (1990).

See also

• Wet T-shirt contest
• Wetlook

Further reading

• brunch (13 July 2014). "Romance of the Wet Sari: Best Moments". Hindustan Times. India. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
• Dwyer, Rachel (2000). "The Erotics of the Wet Sari in Hindi Films". South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 23 (2): 143–160. doi:10.1080/00856400008723418. S2CID 143471737. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
• Roche, Thomas (7 July 2011). "Blowjobs, Bollywood, 'Delhi Belly' and India's Post-Sex Nation: Is Dirty Talk the New Wet Sari?". Violet Blue. Retrieved 10 August 2022.
• Wang, Hansi Lo (3 May 2013). "Bollywood's Early Roots in a Silent Film". Code Switch. All Things Considered. NPR. Retrieved 10 August 2022. Includes information about the first wet sari scene, in the 1913 film Raja Harischandra.