Ranaut, while launching the trailer of her new film, 'Katti Batti' said that she doesn't mind the occasional 'timepass' relationship.

You all know that sex is the Voldemort in Indian homes - that thing that lurks inside everyone's head but no one dares utter aloud. It helps that our TV channels are thoughtful and sanskaari, never letting a word remotely related to sex to be heard from their channels. Now imagine having to live in this universe and then declare that you don't mind having casual sex, one that comes without even a hint of a big, fat shaadi. Chances are, if you are a man, you'll be greeted with an eye-roll and then dismissed as people remind themselves that 'boys, will be boys'. If you are a girl, you'll probably choke someone on his/her drink and immediately be slotted as 'waisi type ki ladki' (that kind of girl). But if you are Kangana Ranaut, you care a damn about 'log kya kahenge' and suchlike and say what you have on your mind.

Ranaut, while launching the trailer of her new film, 'Katti Batti' said that she doesn't mind the occasional 'timepass' relationship. PTI quotes her as saying, "When you date, marriage is not on your mind since first you don't have an understanding of the equation or the relationship. However, I am very open to timepass romance."

It should be noted here that Ranaut was speaking in the context of the Nikhil Advani film, where she plays Payal, a free-spirited, wild girl who dumps her boyfriend, five years after living with him. At least that seems like a story-line of the film, if the trailer is proof.

Ranaut's Payal, however, is not the first female lead in a Bollywood potboiler who doesn't seem to have qualms about casual sex or who leads her life on her own terms. Deepika Padukone in a Cocktail, Finding Fanny or most recently Piku, played characters that weren't products of stuffy, orthodox morals. In fact, female characters in mainstream Bollywood films these days aren't exactly written as asexual creatures who shudder at the thought of sex without the social safety provision of 'ek chutki sindoor'.

However, Bollywood's women aren't exactly the most forthcoming when it comes to admitting to relationships or talking about pre-marital sex even if their characters on screen are doing it. It's completely the actors' prerogative though, whether or not she wants to talk about her personal life. Then again, they usually avoid talking about sex and sexuality even. The idea is whatever character they play onscreen, their public persona has to still seem like a sati savitri, and any public departure from it is considered inadvisable.

That's why Kangana Ranaut's admission comes as a refreshing change. In a country, where women actors used to come with a shelf life and often had to try conforming to the double standards of Indian morality, Ranaut's comment makes her seem like one of those rare women in Bollywood who can call a spade a spade.

The moral hypocrisy that discourages women who aspire to be leading ladies in big banner mainstream films from talking about sex minus the homilies of marriage also shackles other women across the country. An unmarried woman with an active sexual life is immediately branded promiscuous by even fellow women, whereas a man who has casual sex is dismissed as a true representative of his tribe. The latter never faces social persecution for the same.

For example, if you are unmarried and ever walked into a gynaecologists' chamber or a diagnostic centre, chances are, you have been asked several times over if you are a 'miss' or a 'Mrs'. After wondering if the doctor or the radiologist has not read the form you have filled up and ticked the box which says 'single', you realise that 'Mrs' is a euphemism for being sexually active. That spurious coyness is symptomatic of the unrealistic assumptions people make about women in general. It also implies that for recognised social institutions being unmarried and being sexually active are mutually exclusive.

From our mythology to our daily soaps, a woman's greatest virtue has been made out to be her sex life, or the lack of it. For years, Bollywood's leading ladies have enthusiastically tried to seek mass endorsement by playing out the sexy tulsi tere angan ki prototype. Essentially, the woman who is desirable but doesn't desire wantonly. The woman who is sexy, but doesn't have sex if she isn't married. Kangana Ranaut doesn't seek that label. Better, she rejects it.