New Delhi: Pakistani actress Veena Malek has filed a defamation suit against an Indian magazine for a "morphed" cover photo of her posing nude with the initials of Pakistan's intelligence agency on her arm.
Malek's spokesman, Sohail Rasheed, said on Monday that the actress was seeking Rs100 million (Dh7.09 million) in damages from FHM India, which insists the nude cover shoot was genuine and consensual.
"The picture has been morphed," Rasheed said in Islamabad, adding that the magazine had targeted Malek's "credibility and character".
"Veena Malek never indulged in nudity and has no intention to do it in future," he added.
The magazine's December issue only hit news stands on Sunday afternoon, but a weekend preview of the cover on its website triggered a media frenzy.
Fear of backlash
FHM India editor Kabeer Sharma said that he was mystified by Malek's allegations. "Maybe she is facing some kind of backlash, so maybe that's why she is denying it. We have not photo-shopped or faked the cover. This is what she looks like, she has an amazing body," Sharma said.
In his Twitter feed on Monday, Sharma said he would release a series of photos from the shoot proving his version of the story.
While Malek's pose on the cover preserves a scant degree of modesty, any nudity is still very much frowned upon in conservative India — and indeed in Muslim-majority Pakistan.
What has raised more eyebrows was her arm sporting the initials ISI — the acronym for Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's spy agency.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have gone to war three times and the ISI has been routinely accused by New Delhi of masterminding militant attacks on Indian soil. Sharma said the idea had been to take an ironic swipe at India's obsession with the ISI. A tag line on the cover that points to the initials, reads: "Hand in the end of the world too?" "People, especially young people in both countries, want to move past this kind of thinking," the editor said. "It's a very powerful picture — it took a lot of guts for her to do that. It shows a powerful, sexy woman not afraid to speak her mind."
Another picture on the inside of the magazine showed a topless Malek, again with the ISI tattoo, biting the pin of a hand grenade.
