INDIAN tourist officials in Goa warned on Friday (November 2) that they would shut down a Playboy club set to open next month if there was any evidence of “obscenity, vulgarity or nudity”.
Playboy’s local franchisee PB Lifestyle has announced plans for more than 100 outlets in India, starting with a beachside club in the holiday state, but their “bunny” waitresses will sport a new look to suit conservative Indian values.
“They may brand the club as Playboy but if they indulge in obscenity, vulgarity or nudity, then we will withdraw their permission immediately,” Goa’s director of tourism Nikhil Desai, told reporters.
He said he was unaware of any formal application for a licence.
PB Lifestyle, which has the rights to develop Playboy outlets in India, plans to open clubs, hotels, fashion cafes and shops across the country in the next 10 years, investing at least Rs2bn ($37m/£22.97m).
The firm is planning more modest outfits for the bunnies, famous for their skimpy costumes of corsets with fluffy rabbit tails and ears, PB Lifestyle chief Sanjay Gupta told reporters on Thursday (November 1).
He also stressed no nudity would be involved.
Playboy magazine, along with a host of other foreign “adult” magazines, is not permitted in India owing to obscenity laws banning material deemed “lascivious or appealing to prurient interests’.
Bollywood actress Sherlyn Chopra this year became the first Indian woman to pose naked for Playboy magazine.
