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Suddenly
there were no item girls but the glamour quotient never dipped.
This was when the leading ladies decided that they had had enough
of hiding in the shadows of the vamps. The then glamour goddess
Kushboo, the spicy pair of Roja and Meena and the steaming red hot
Rambha and Nagma saw to it that the silver screen is devoid of item
girls. Glamour had become the heroine’s responsibility and
anyone who was not willing to carry on the trend was shown the door
or relegated to the odd one or two movies. Vamps were no longer
required in Tamil cinema, nor were the item numbers considered important. |
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Then
a leading heroine of the times, Gauthami did the unthinkable
(at that time), an item song. Remember the sensational ‘Chiku
Bukku’ from Gentleman, the song opened the floodgates,
making it no longer unacceptable for a heroine to do item
numbers. Most of the lead ladies followed suit and even tasted
considerable success. A new trend started to emerge. There
were still no traces of item girls; however lead heroines
started doing item numbers.
The trend of leading ladies handling the glamour department
and doing the occasional item number passed on safely to the
hands of Simran and later Jyothika. Still there were no signs
of the item girls. |
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Now
things seem to be coming full circle. Yes, Namitha and Malavika
have emerged as strong item girls, enjoying a huge fan base and
contributing to the commercial success of their movies.
With the ‘leading’ ladies of Kollywood (Asin, Trisha
and Shriya) reportedly refusing all offers given to them for item
songs, the offered sum running up to many crores, producers are
taking off to Mumbai in search of item girls. Mumaith Khan &
‘seena thana’ fame Ragasiya seem to be some of their
latest discoveries. So after having survived many years in a camouflaged
alter ego, the item girls are coming back in their true form.
Like it or hate it, commercial cinema and item girls go hand in
hand.
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