Aamir Khan defends nudity on ‘PK’ poster

The Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan says posing nude on the poster for PK was not a publicity stunt.

Aamir Khan defended the PK poster saying it is not a publicity stunt. EPA / Sanjeev Gupta

Superstar Aamir Khan has spoken out about the controversy sparked in conservative India over the racy poster for his upcoming film PK, explaining that for him, it was not a publicity stunt.

Instead he called it “key art”, and said the poster merely depicts the story of the film.

The poster for Rajkumar Hirani's PK features Aamir posing nude with a strategically placed boombox.

“When you will watch the film, then only you will be able to understand the idea...,” he said. “But I would just like to say that the kind of filmmaker, the kind of writer Rajkumar is, he always tries to present the things, his thinking, in a unique way and that’s why I am his huge fan.”

Khan spoke on the sidelines of a screening of Marathi film Saturday Sunday in Mumbai on Wednesday, citing the example of the poster for his past production and directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par, which featured the child actor Darsheel Safary.

"In the poster of Taare Zameen Par, the child is sitting in the front on the school bench and I am sitting behind him. So it is a kind of key art...the image that tells you much about the story, and so is the poster of PK."

This is not for publicity, not for us at least.”

Meanwhile, a case filed in a Kanpur court against Aamir, director Rajkumar Hirani and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, accuses them of of promoting nudity and vulgarity through the poster.

The actor is hopeful that everything will get clear once people watch the film when it releases in December.

“We are getting a mixed response from the people,” said the 49-year-old. “But I feel that when they will watch the film, their doubts will get cleared,”

PK also features actor Sanjay Dutt, Anushka Sharma and Sushant Singh Rajput.

-Ians