It’s not the sentence you would expect to see in an “open letter” from the respectable Times of India, (established 1838). “Deepika,” runs the editorial addressed to actress Deepika Padukone, “just for the record, we do not zoom into a woman’s vagina or show her nipples.” The unedifying clarification was the latest salvo in the “cleavage row” between the paper and a huge Bollywood star, in which it seems that nothing is off-limits.

The storm began when the Times of India tweeted a video, angled to show Padukone’s décolletage with the excitable caption “OMG! Deepika Padukone’s cleavage show”, helpfully ringed just like Heat magazine’s old “circle of shame”.

Supposedly India's 'LEADING' newspaper and this is 'NEWS'!!?? pic.twitter.com/D3wiVVXuyM — Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) September 14, 2014

The actor was not impressed, unleashing a flurry of scathing tweets in response. “Supposedly India’s ‘LEADING’ newspaper and this is ‘NEWS’!!??”,” she wrote, “YES! I am a Woman. I have breasts AND a cleavage! You got a problem!!??”

Undeterred the Times fell back on the comeback of leery wolf-whistlers everywhere: “It’s a compliment! You look so great that we want to make sure everyone knew! :)”

Other Bollywood stars, male and female, then piled into the ensuing storm, until the Times of India responded with the open letter, which included a rebuttal of the actor’s complaint that they would never “zoom in” on a man’s crotch in this way.

But perhaps the most depressing aspect of the row, for a global audience, is just how familiar it is. With the Sun’s Page 3, British readers have grown accustomed to news outlets treating women’s bodies as currency to drive up sales – with the No More Page 3 campaign’s refrain of “boobs aren’t news” almost exactly echoed in Padukone’s irritated tweets.

Just in the past week there have been long articles about which celebrities have the perfect breasts – illustrated with pictures of Kelly Brook and the Duchess of Cambridge.

The Times of India’s defence – that Pandukone “flaunts” her body on the red carpet – sounds much like the language used on the Daily Mail “sidebar of shame”, where women are often written up to be “showing off their curves” as they go about their daily lives.

Critics have pointed out that Padukone has benefited herself from posing for racy photos, yet arguing that this made her body public property only leads to arguments that justify even worse invasions – such as the recent leak of nude pictures of celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Rihanna.

Of course, all this might matter a lot less if newspapers were releasing a stream of exciting stories about women who were achieving great things rather than, as the No More Page 3 campaign observes, “page after page of pictures of men in clothes doing stuff”, while women are still pictured “in their pants showing their breasts”.