Sonu Walia in a towel: What made my Bollywood wet dream

There was a time not long ago when getting crowned Miss India was considered a stepping stone to stardom in B-Town. This dawned on me while doing research for a piece on Sonu Walia whose birthday it is today. Juhi Chawla was declared Miss India in 1984, which happens to be the year I was born. Till date, I'm a die-hard fan of her heart-warming smile. Her vivaciousness was so arresting, it appeared as if the camera itself had fallen in love with her.

Anyway, the year after was Sonu Walia's turn, who won the Miss India title in 1985. And, she was noticed for some "pretty" explosive scenes for the time in the Hindi film industry. And it was during this research of mine, that I stumbled across the waterfall scene from her famous film, Akarshan - uploaded by a porn blog on YouTube.

Sonu... Sonu... Doesn't Sonu sound like just another household name? Nothing unusual. We have heard names of politicians such as Pappu Singh, Guddu Shukla and the like. And our "baal kalaakar", Anil Kapoor has got the nickname "Munna" patented for himself. A heroine with a name such as Sonu has a similar effect as an actor with his onscreen avatar called Chhotu, Raju or Tinkoo. But if I'm not mistaken Tinkoo is "Jiya", right? Just imagine: *drumroll* Yash Raj proudly presents Chhotu as "Rangbaaz Romeo"!

Aah, I digressed. The crux of the matter is that Sonu is the name of a heroine. And Sonu Walia is remembered for her itsy-bitsy role in her teeny-tiny dresses in Rakesh Roshan's Khoon Bhari Maang. I wonder how many pati-pratadit women of that era would do whatever it takes to own a pair of diamonds earrings. Thanks to those diamonds, Rekha got a plastic surgery done after the crocodiles feasted on her face, when Kabir Bedi threw her off the boat. I digressed again, didn't I?

In the film, Sonu played Bedi's girlfriend. And there's a song where we see the lovers enjoying more than just a swim in a pool. Swimming together, they realise, it's Hindi romance and the film will attract bad omen if they allowed the get-wet-and-wild opportunity to slip through. And since cinema as an art form expects the heroine to be dirty dancing, we see a chilled out Bedi reclining on a bench as the sole audience of the dancing number. And then such is her dedication towards the dance that she doesn't bother changing her bikini. It allows the audience to sit up and watch with rapt attention. And like an ace acrobat, she uses the towel skilfully. Boy, such is the stuff Bollywood fantasy is made of.

We can safely say, Salman Khan cannot be credited for giving the towel dance to Bollywood.

(Translated from Hindi by Radhika Sharma.)