Illustration: Rajender Kumar

The recent revelation of a prostitution racket in the US has blown the lid off the Telugu film industry where actresses who have fallen on bad times are exploited and become part of the flesh trade

~By Kingshuk Nag in Hyderabad

Two weeks ago, the Page 3 sections of leading newspapers carried the good news of the betrothal of a minor Bollywood actress. Naturally, there was no mention of the controversy that the actress had landed up in four years ago in 2014—in Hyderabad.

The actress—let’s call her S—was arrested from a leading five-star hotel in Hyderabad where she was found in a compromising position with a man, who the police alleged was her client. Consequently, S was sent to a remand home where she spent two months before being released.

At the time of her arrest, S is said to have given out a statement (that was carried in a section of the press) that she had fallen on bad days and was forced to resort to prostitution to support her family. On release from the remand home—on the orders of the sessions court which also threw out all the charges against her—S stated that she had never given out the earlier statement.

S, who stays in Mumbai, also stated that she had been visiting Hyderabad and had been put up at the hotel by the organisers of a film award function which she had come to attend. But she had extended her trip by a day when nabbed by the cops. Interestingly, the cops were quick to publicise her name but put a lid on the identities of her alleged high-profile clients.

S, who is National Award winner, has now bagged some meaty roles in TV soaps and movies, including one by a top director. Although Bollywood did not rally to her support, one of the topmost heroines was quoted in the press as saying that there was nothing wrong in her practising her trade if it was for the upkeep of her family when she was down and out.

At the time of her arrest, stories doing the rounds suggested that the raid was a result of rivalry between two high-profile prostitution rings. The leading ring was run by a Tollywood actress—who though in the business of acting—was close to the end of her run in movies. Hence, she had moved into this lucrative business that catered to the high-end market. However, a rival group promoted by a prominent socialite was cutting into the business of the ring run by the Tollywood actress and thus she, with her wide-ranging contacts, had tipped the cops. That’s how S had been nabbed. Incidentally, the five-star hotel where this sexual encounter took place is very prominent and owned by a well-known public figure.

Whatever be the veracity of the stories, it is an open secret that there is a casting couch in the film industry—Bollywood, Tollywood or wherever. Though all actresses don’t have to go through this, there are many aspirants who are subject to it. And after going through this experience, these aspirants who may get a small role or two think nothing of offering themselves to the flesh trade.

According to analysts, this is also because after getting used to the “high life” even with a few films, these actresses may have a higher financial requirement to maintain their lifestyles. “They are already compromised and once you have lowered your guard, there will be no internal compulsion not to indulge in such activities,” said a Tollywood film director who did not want to be named to India Legal. “And therefore, there are guys to organise these operations—sophisticated pimps—if you please,” he added. He is not surprised that the operations have taken a step forward and assumed an international dimension what with a racket being exposed recently.

Five Tollywood actresses who acted in a few films in Telugu and Kannada were caught in this racket in the US with the two organisers, Kishan Modugumudi, and his wife, Chandrakala, who were arrested. Modugumadi was earlier in Hyderabad and had co-produced at least two movies there.

Although news of the racket became public, the duo was arrested on April 28, and since then is cooling their heels in jail. Charges were brought against them on June 13 in a 42-page criminal complaint before the Chicago district court. The Chicago Tribune reported that the duo had brought in the actresses at different times under the cover of their participation in events in Telugu cultural programmes and then offered them for commercial sex. The actresses came on a temporary visa and were put up in a two-storied dingy building in Chicago’s Belmont Cragin neighbourhood where they waited for their sexual encounters. This could be in Chicago, New Jersey or even Washington.

Each sexual encounter cost $3,000 and the pimping couple kept detailed ledgers of the sex acts of these actresses, where they had performed it and how much they had collected. In at least one instance, the US agents recovered emails which showed that the 34-year-old Modugumadi was threatening the starlet that he could reveal her activities as he also had copies of her passport and visa. This was because the starlet was refusing to do more business at his instance. The court sent the two accused (who could follow the court proceedings only through a Telugu interpreter) to further remand.

Incidentally, visas were obtained for these actresses on the basis of invitation letters on forged letterheads of various Telugu associations in the US. The invites were for various conferences of these associations and sometimes even for fictitious events. The scam was busted by agents of Homeland Security of the United States who were looking for suspicious folk entering that country. Their suspicions were fuelled by the discovery that one of the actresses had come to the US more than once and in close succession. Another star came there with an invitation for a function a few days after the programme had taken place.

Incidentally, after the scam was busted, some other small-time Tollywood actresses revealed in Hyderabad that they too had been contacted by the arrested duo for the same purpose, but had refused to be part of the racket. Among them was Sri Reddy who created a furore in the industry a few months ago by raising the black flag on the widespread phenomenon of the casting couch in Tollywood. Sri Reddy had tried to strip outside the office of the Film Chambers that represents the Telugu film industry. Now she has told the press that the arrested couple has agents in Hyderabad who arrange visas and everything else for artistes agreeing to go to the US for this purpose. “Artistes are paid anything between $1,000 and $10,000 depending on their popularity,” she said.

Another Tollywood actress, Anasuya Bharadwaj, said that she was contacted by Modugumadi in 2016 while she was already on tour in the US and invited to participate in an event organised by a particular Telugu association. But she had refused because she was not comfortable with the way Modugumadi spoke to her. However, much to her chagrin, Modugumadi included her name in a poster created to publicise the cultural programmes at the function. She had to tweet that she wasn’t participating.

Another Tollywood actress, Sanjana, said that actresses are “advertised for sex” at cross-cultural programmes in the US and there was nothing new about it. She added that it was mostly C and D grade actresses working as supporting artistes who fall for the trap. “They are invited for dance programmes and then lured into the flesh trade,” she said.

Tollywood, which is the second largest producer of films after Bollywood, unfortunately has a sleazy reputation and this will only be accentuated after the latest scandal. The industry is dominated by actresses who are non-locals and mostly from the north.

However, the heroes are all locals. Although the obsession of the audience with fair skin (that is more likely among actresses from the north) is the primary reason for this phenomenon of imported heroines, local filmdom claims that this leads to another issue. “Away from home and their own milieu, some of the girls drop their guard. A few of them looking for faster accumulation of wealth and overpowered by ambitions offer their services to an ever-ready clientele. They know that nobody in their personal circles will come to know about their activities,” said a film industry insider.

With wealth accumulated in a few hands in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, there are some who are ready to splurge, including on actresses, for an encounter. Abroad too, the clients of the exported Telugu actresses are Telugus. Many of them, originally from modest backgrounds, could only fantasise about Tollywood stars during their days in India. This being the case, some of them could not resist the temptation when Tollywood stars were offered to them, albeit at a price.